The effects of hospitalization on the sleep patterns of patients aged 20- 30 years old admitted at a central hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Objectives: To establish factors that can affect sleep patterns of hospitalised patients aged between 20 and 30 years at a central hospital. To identify hospital environmental factors and procedures or routines that affect sleep.

Design: A non-experimental descriptive design with structured questions was used.

Settings: An urban, central hospital in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe.

Participants: A random sample of 20 participants admitted at a central hospital aged between 20 and 30 years were included in the study.

Main outcome measures: Varied indicators of sleeping patterns were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results: This study showed that hospitalization affected (80%), a major proportion of the participants. Eleven (68.75%) spent most of their time awake because of hospitalization, the remainder, (31.25%) had their sleep increased because of hospitalization. Ten (62.5%) of the participants' sleep patterns were decreased by noise from other patients through crying and grunting. Furthermore, (31.25%) were disturbed by noise from nurses and their trolleys. Inadequate orientation altered the sleep patterns of all participants.

Conclusion: Various factors influence negatively the sleep of hospitalized patients including lack of orientation of patients on admission. Because of the exploratory nature of this study, it is important to conduct further studies before concrete recommendations can be made.