Eye masks and earplugs could help hospital patients get a better night's sleep. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Critical Care investigated their effect on sleep quality in a simulated intensive care environment.
Xiaoying Jiang from Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China, worked with a team of researchers to carry out the study in 14 healthy people exposed to recorded intensive care noise and equivalent light levels. She said, "Sleep disruption is common in intensive care unit patients and has been associated with impaired immune function, decreased inspiratory muscle endurance, extended mechanical ventilation, delirium and severe morbidity".
The researchers measured sleep quality over four nights; one to get used to the new environment and one 'baseline' night, followed by two nights exposed to noise and light, one with eye masks and ear plugs and one without. To minimize any effects of ordering, the last two nights were randomized. According to Jiang, "The earplugs and eye masks were applied easily and remained in place and intact throughout the nights they were used. Use of plugs and masks resulted in more REM sleep, shorter REM latency and fewer arousals. Subjective measures of sleep quality were also significantly improved, and participants reported much less awareness of their surroundings when they were worn".
Jiang concludes, "This study provides a reasonable basis for promoting the routine use of earplugs and eye masks for intensive care patients. Future studies should be designed to determine if this ultimately improves clinical outcomes".
Notes to Editors
1. Effects of earplugs and eye masks on nocturnal sleep, melatonin and cortisol in a simulated intensive care unit environment
Rong-fang Hu, Xiao-ying Jiang, Yi-ming Zeng, Xiao-yang Chen and You-hua Zhang
Critical Care (in press)
During embargo, article available here: http://ccforum.com/imedia/3381521283114581_article.pdf?random=181920
After the embargo, article available at the journal website: http://ccforum.com/
Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.
Article citation and URL available on request at press@biomedcentral.com on the day of publication.
2. Critical Care is a high quality, peer-reviewed, international clinical medical journal. Critical Care aims to improve the care of critically ill patients by acquiring, discussing, distributing, and promoting evidence-based information relevant to intensivists. The journal is edited by Prof Jean-Louis Vincent (Belgium) and has an Impact Factor of 4.55
3. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector.
Journal
Critical Care