Sleeping characteristics of adults undergoing outpatient elective surgery: A cohort study

Study Objective: To describe sleeping patterns of adults before and after outpatient surgery. Design: Observational cohort study. Setting: Outpatient surgical facility. Patients: 127 consenting adults, including 92 surgery patients and 35 community controls. Interventions: Participants' sleep was measured for two days before and 2 days after outpatient surgery. Measurements: Sleep was measured using actigraphy; additional measurements were made of anxiety (STAI), pain and energy (VAS), recovery (PHRI), and sleep history. Main Results: Approximately 23% of patients experienced clinically significant sleep impairment after surgery, a more difficult recovery, increased pain, and lower energy. In contrast, only 2.9% of the community control g-roup experienced clinically significant sleep impairment during the same time period. Also, patients in the surgery group experienced significantly more True Wake Time postoperatively than did control patients (p = 0.029). The surgery group also experienced more Night Awakenings >5 minutes than the control group (p = 0.006), but not more overall Night Awakenings (p = 0,1106). Finally, of the patients in the surgery group, those who had higher state anxiety in the holding area also had more difficulty sleeping over the 4-day monitoring period (True Sleep Time was lower, 352 +/- 187 vs. 229 +/- 225, p = 0.009). Conclusions: A moderate proportion of adults experience Postoperative sleeping problems. (C) 2003 by Elsevier Inc.