The Effect of White Noise on Sleep Quality, Comfort, and Satisfaction in Patients Undergoing Lumbar Disk Herniation...

To determine the effect of white noise on sleep quality, comfort, and satisfaction after lumbar disk hernia surgery.

Open-label, parallel-group, randomized controlled study.

This study enrolled 60 patients, aged between 18 and 65 years, who were hospitalized for at least 48 hours, had a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 15, and underwent lumbar disk herniation surgery in the neurosurgery ward of a training and research hospital in Istanbul. Patients in the intervention group (n = 30) listened to white noise for 30 minutes before sleeping in addition to routine care on postoperative days 0 and 1, while patients in the control group (n = 30) received no intervention. The primary outcome of the study was the change in sleep quality (assessed by the Richard-Campbell Sleep Scale) on postoperative days 1 and 2. Secondary outcomes were changes in baseline comfort (assessed with the Shortened General Comfort Questionnaire) and satisfaction (visual analog scale) levels on postoperative days 1 and 2.

Although both the intervention and control groups showed statistically significant increases in sleep quality over the first 2 days after surgery (P < .001 for both), this increase was more pronounced in the intervention group. The intervention group also showed significant increases in comfort scores between postoperative days 1 and 2 (P < .001 for all). Between postoperative days 1 and 2, satisfaction scores decreased significantly in the intervention group (P < .001) but not in the control group (P > .05).

White noise was effective in increasing the sleep quality, comfort, and satisfaction levels of patients after lumbar disk hernia surgery.