Effect of Noise on Hospitalized Patient's Night's Sleep and Vital Signs in Intensive Care Unit

Objective: Noise is defined as unwanted sound causing discomfort. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of noise on sleep in intensive care patients and to examine its impact on vital signs. Materials and Methods: The subjects of this descriptive study (n=83) were all of the patients hospitalized in the Neurosurgery Intensive Care (NSIC) Unit of the Cukurova University Faculty of Medicine who were conforming to selection criteria of the study, older than 18 years, and those willing to participate. Approvals necessary for the study were obtained from the ethics committee of the institution, dean of faculty of medicine, and hospital chief physician. To collect data, Patient Identification Form, Richard's Campbell Sleep Questionnaire, Visual Analog Scale, sound level meter, patient monitoring and tympanic thermometer were used. Result: In conclusion, the average noise level was found to be 52.04 +/- 5.75 dB. Of the patients, 75% reported problems to sleep due to noise, which was mainly produced from the alarms of the monitors and the most obvious complaints was frequent awakenings (p<0.05). It was found that there was a weak positive correlation between the sound level and the systolic blood pressure. There was also a weak correlation with the pulse, diastolic blood pressure, and respiratory sound level. Conclusion: In accordance with the results obtained from this investigation, neurosurgical ICU patients experience sleep problems due to the ambient noise, thus suggestions to minimize such noise in the unit were issued.