Investigating the changes in sleep characteristics of intensive care unit nurses.

The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in sleep characteristics of intensive care unit nurses.Sixty volunteer nurses working in Celal Bayar University Hospital were included. The sleep charecteristics of 20 intensive care , 20 policlinic and 20 ceneral wards nurses were evaluated by subjective and objective sleep parameters and the groups were compared with each other.Pittsburgh index, which is a subjective sleep test, was found to be significantly higher in intensive care nurses. In intensive care unit nurses, the values of Actigraphic sleep parameters such as `Actual wake time?, `Actual wake %?, `Total Activation Score?, `Fragmentation index? were significiantly higher and `Actual sleep time?, `Sleep efficiency? and `Actual sleep %? were significiantly lower when compared with the policlinic nurses and the service department nurses. The findings of our study suggest that there is an association between working in intensive care unit and sleep disorders.In conclusion, heavy work load of intensive care unit, nursing of the critically ill patients continously and the emotional stress due to the responsibility should be the reasons of the sleep disorders seen in intensive care unit nurses.