RESEARCH ARTICLE
Night-time Noise Levels and Patients’ Sleep Experiences in a Medical Assessment Unit in Northern England
Felicity Astin1, 2, *, John Stephenson1, Jonathan Wakefield1, Ben Evans1, Priyanka Rob1, Garside Joanna1, Emma Harris1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2020Volume: 14
First Page: 80
Last Page: 91
Publisher ID: TONURSJ-14-80
DOI: 10.2174/1874434602014010080
Article History:
Received Date: 28/01/2020Revision Received Date: 25/04/2020
Acceptance Date: 07/05/2020
Electronic publication date: 18/06/2020
Collection year: 2020
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Hospital in-patients need sleep so that restorative process and healing can take place. However, over one third of in-patients experience sleep disturbance, often caused by noise. This can compromise patients’ perceptions of care quality and cause physical and psychological ill health.
Aims:
To assess 1) in-patients sleep quality, quantity, reported sources of sleep disturbance and their suggestions for improvement 2) objectively measure decibel levels recorded at night.
Methods:
This descriptive study conducted in a Medical Assessment Unit used multi-methods; a semi-structured ‘sleep experience’ questionnaire administered to a purposive sample of in-patients; recording of night-time noise levels, on 52 consecutive nights, using two calibrated Casella sound level meters.
Results:
Patient ratings of ‘in-hospital’ sleep quantity (3.25; 2.72 SD) and quality (2.91; 2.56 SD) was poorer compared to ‘home’ sleep quantity (5.07; 2.81 SD) and quality (5.52; 2.79 SD). The difference in sleep quality (p<0.001) and quantity (p<0.001) ratings whilst in hospital, compared to at home, was statistically significant. Care processes, noise from other patients and the built environment were common sources of sleep disturbance. Participants’ suggestions for improvement were similar to interventions identified in current research. The constant noise level ranged from 38-57 decibels (equivalent to an office environment), whilst peak levels reached a maximum of 116 decibels, (equivalent to banging a car door one metre away).
Conclusion:
The self-rated patient sleep experience was significantly poorer in hospital, compared to home. Noise at night contributed to sleep disturbance. Decibel levels were equivalent to those reported in other international studies. Data informed the development of a ‘Sleep Smart’ toolkit designed to improve the in-patient sleep experience.
