Research

Mixed

Sleep in intensive care units is characterized by poor quantity and quality, specifically featuring reduced slow-wave and REM sleep, high fragmentation, and frequent arousals, largely driven by environmental noise and care events.

For ICU patients, sleep is severely disrupted by noise and care events. To improve sleep quality, hospitals should implement sound reduction programs and minimize unnecessary care interruptions during sleep hours, as current environments exceed safe sound levels and lead to poor sleep architecture.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
The quantity and quality of sleep in intensive care patients are poor and may be related to noise, critical illness itself and treatment events that disturb sleep.
Rosalind Elliott et al. · Critical Care · 2013

Why this rating

Observational study with 57 patients, 24-hour PSG, and simultaneous environmental monitoring; limited by lack of control group and potential under-recording of care events.

Source

Characterisation of sleep in intensive care using 24-hour polysomnography: anobservational study

Rosalind Elliott et al. · Critical Care · 2013

DOI 10.1186/cc12565

cohort · n=57Cited 333×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →