Research

Hormonal

Use of earplugs and eye masks during exposure to simulated ICU noise and light improves sleep architecture (increasing REM sleep, decreasing REM latency and arousals) and elevates nocturnal melatonin levels in healthy subjects.

If you are in a noisy, bright environment like an ICU, using earplugs and an eye mask can significantly improve your sleep quality and help your body produce restorative hormones like melatonin. While it might feel uncomfortable at first, proper fitting and instruction can help. This is a low-cost, non-pharmacological way to support recovery.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Use of earplugs and eye masks resulted in more REM time, shorter REM latency, less arousal (P < 0.05) and elevated melatonin levels (P = 0.002).
Rongfang Hu et al. · Critical Care · 2010

Why this rating

Small sample size (n=14), healthy subjects rather than ICU patients, and simulated environment limit generalizability to the target clinical population.

Source

Effects of earplugs and eye masks on nocturnal sleep, melatonin and cortisol in a simulated intensive care unit environment

Rongfang Hu et al. · Critical Care · 2010

DOI 10.1186/cc8965

crossover · n=14Cited 198×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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