Effects of Earplugs and Eye Masks on Perceived Quality of Sleep during Night among Patients in Intensive Care Units

Sleep disruption is a common problem among ICU patients and causes of sleep disruption are multi factorial. Noise and light are the most common sleep disruptive factors which have negative physiological and psychological effects on patients admitted in ICU. This prospective randomized crossover design study aims to assess the effectiveness of earplugs and eye masks on perceived quality of sleep among patients admitted in intensive care units. Fifty patients from different ICUs of AIIMS, Delhi were randomly allocated into two groups. One group received earplugs and eye masks during first night and only routine environment provided on the second night, while another group did not receive earplugs and eye masks on first night and received on second night. Sleep was assessed in the coming morning by modified Richard Campbell Sleep Questionnaire (RCSQ). Data analysis was done using STATA 11.1, with the level of significance at p less than 0.05. There was significant improvement in mean sleep score when earplugs and eye masks (70.26 5.89 and 68.74 6.54) versus routine environment (45.86 4.86 and 43.06 7.31) was used (p less than 0.01). Noise and light were major sleep disturbing factors among ICU patients, earplugs and eye masks were found to be significantly (p = 0.04) correlated with noise and light. It is concluded that earplugs and eye masks are relatively cheap interventions with notable improvements in quality of sleep and valuable addition to the patients attempting to sleep in an intensive care units. Earplugs and eye masks could be used as an alternative to sleep medications for patients when appropriate.