Sleep of Intensive Care Patients: A Qualitative Study Based on Experiences of Nurses.

Background: Intensive care patients experience a high rate of poor sleep quality. As the sleep quality is improved with nursing practices, patients' recovery and the length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) may be positively influenced, and patients may benefit from treatment and care at the highest level. Therefore, it is important to explore the experiences and evaluation of nurses working in ICUs.

Objectives: This study was carried out to explore the experiences and evaluations of ICU nurses about patients' sleep.

Methods: The study is a qualitative study conducted in a descriptive phenomenological design. The data were collected using the individual in-depth interview method with the semistructured interview form. Thematic analysis was performed to analyze the data. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist was used.

Results: The analysis revealed 4 main themes, which are (1) importance of sleep, (2) evaluation of sleep, (3) reasons for poor sleep, and (4) sleep promotion interventions.

Conclusions: This study revealed that nurses are aware of the importance of sleep; however, they do not evaluate sleep and try to improve sleep quality only based on their own knowledge and experience rather than on evidence-based approaches. However, their interventions are not sufficient and they are restricted because of physical conditions and intensive care procedures.