How Hospitalized Children Sleep (2014)
Undergraduates: Ellen Cowherd, Michael Humphries
Faculty Advisor: Michael Steiner
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience
Methods: Patients aged 2-17 years who were admitted to the general pediatrics inpatient service at least 24 hours prior were approached based on random selection and consented. Parent of participant completed survey on home sleep behavior. A video camera was set up, and recording occurred in the patient's hospital room continuously from 20:00 until 08:00. Video was reviewed by assistants, and data related to sleep initiation, duration, interruptions, and associated factors were extracted. Information was extracted on age, race, sex, insurance, diagnoses, and medications; a severity of illness score was assigned to each participant. Analysis included chi square and ttest as appropriate.
Results: In enrolled patients (n=51), mean time of sleep initiation was 22:29 (range 21:35-22:42), attempted sleep duration was 524 minutes (range 487-561), and duration of actual sleep was 466 minutes (range 421-511). Subjects were awakened an average of 2.6 (standard deviation=0.7) times per night. The vast majority of awakenings were due either to medical personnel or equipment. Sleep timing was not significantly correlated to age, illness severity, or quality of sleep at home. Later bedtime was associated with less time awake during the night (p=0.009) but less total time asleep (p=0.03).
Conclusions: Hospitalized children go to sleep very late at night and have frequent awakenings. Future research should examine if sleep quality can be improved and the impact on patient outcomes.