Sleep Quality of Patients Hospitalized in the Coronary Intensive Care Unit and the Affecting Factors

Backgrounds: Intensive care units have many factors that cause sleep disorders in patients. Most of the times, due to the environment and the conditions, patints have to remain with less sleep. Objective: The aim of this descriptive study was the quality of sleep and the affecting factors in patients hospitalized in Coronary Intensive Care Unit (CICU). Methods: Nine questions were included in the data collecting form about the socio-demographic and disease characteristics of the patients. To determine the sleep quality and the affecting factors of the patients a 1-10 point scale was used (Freedman et al 1999). Results:The mean age of the 100 patients was 55.5 ±16.59 (range:21-93) years old. The patients were hospitalized for miyocardial infarction (35%), congestive heart failure (29%) and they were hospitalized with an mean of 4.7±1.16 days. While the patient sleep quality mean score at home was in average 7.39 ±1.87 it has been determined that the first night after the hospitalization the mean score reaching the lowest level was 5.42±2.39 and that the mean of the CICU was 6.83 ±2.15 and that after the transfer to the clinic the score was reaching (7.39±2.18) the same score as the sleep quality at home. While the change in sleep quality related to the diagnostic of the patients was not considered as statistically significant(p<0.05). Conclusion: While the sleep quality of patients hospitalized in CICU was showing a slight decrease during the first night of hospitalization in CICU, after the transfer to the clinic it was reaching the same sleep quality existing at home. It has been in the opinion that this situation was generated by important factors which affect the sleep quality of patients such as light, noise existing in the CICU and as well as by the nursing activities.