Investigation Of Sleep Disorders In Intensive Care Nurses

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the sleep quality of intensive care nurses. Material and Method: Sixty volunteer intensive care, policlinic and general wards nurses working in Celal Bayar University Hospital were included as three equal groups. The sleep characteristics of all nurses were evaluated initially by subjective tests: Pittsburgh Sleep quality index and Epworth sleepiness scale, furthermore actigraph was used to investigate sleep quality objectively in all groups. Results were compared between the groups. Results: Pittsburgh index, which is a subjective sleep test, was found to be significantly higher in intensive care nurses. In intensive care nurses, the values of Actigraphic sleep parameters such as ‘Actual wake time’, ‘Actual wake %’, ‘Total Activation Score’, ‘Fragmentation index’ were significantly higher and ‘Actual sleep time’, ‘Sleep efficiency’ and ‘Actual sleep %’ were significantly lower, when compared with the policlinic nurses and the general wards nurses. Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that, nursing of the critically ill patients continuously should give rise to sleep disorders in intensive care nurses. (Journal of the Turkish Society Intensive Care 2011; 9:59-63)