The effect of wearing sleep hat on babies in a newborn intensive care unit on babies' sleep and physiological variables

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of wearing sleep hat on infants in the neonatal intensive care unit on sleep and physiological variables of infants. Material and Methods: The data of this study, which was designed as a randomized controlled experimental study, were collected from 53 infants (26 study group, 27 control group) hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit of Aydın Gynecology and Pediatrics Hospital between September 2020 and March 2021. Babies born in the neonatal intensive care unit, stable in room air, and born over 32 weeks were included in the study. Babies in the study group were put on sleep hat during sleep. Clinical routine applications were applied to the infants in the control group. Video recordings were made between 19:00 and 07:00 for three days in both the study and control groups. The video recordings were blinded by the researcher and an expert independent of the study. Sleep duration, number of awakenings, reasons for waking up, and physiological variables of the babies were evaluated. Descriptive statistics, chi-square, t test, Mann-Whitney U test, Friedman Analysis of Variance, Wilcoxon test and repeated measurements ANOVA test were used in the analysis of the data. Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of sleep duration on the third follow-up day (p=0.006). There was no statistically significant difference between the number of awakenings of the study and control groups (p>0.05), but a significant difference was found in the number of awakenings in preterm infants (p= 0.016). It was determined that the saturation value of the study group was significantly higher on the second follow-up day between the groups (p<0.001). Conclusion: In this study, it was aimed to put a sleep hat on infants in the neonatal intensive care unit; it was observed that it increased the sleep duration, decreased the number of awakenings and had an effect on the saturation value. For this reason, it is recommended to wear a sleep hat for babies in the NICU. Keywords: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Neonatal sleep, Sleep hat, Physiological variables