Assessment of sleep on in-patient psychiatry wards
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The objective and subjective assessment of sleep on the acute in-patient psychiatry ward
IRAS ID
222122
Contact name
K Anderson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NTW Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
East of Scotland REC, 17/ES/0009
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 0 days
Research summary
Normal amounts and timing of sleep are vital for normal mental health. However the need for careful monitoring of patients admitted to the acute mental health services can lead to sleep disruption in itself.
The use of sedative and weight gaining medication to treat psychiatric illness can cause problems such as snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea. Certain sleeping tablets are addictive and if started in hospital can be difficult to stop. Sleep apnoea can also lead to worsening mood and daytime sleepiness and fatigue but has good treatment.As standard practice across the UK, many acute wards will leave patients on hourly observation through day and night but the effect of this practice on sleep disturbance has not been assessed. We hypothesise that it causes harm and that this is both to the patients mental health but also to their physical health as sleep fragmentation increases blood pressure and impaires blood glucose control. This is not standard practice across physical health care trusts where protection of the night sleep period would be standard wherever possible.
We also hypothesise that higlighting sleep disturbance and personalising care with a sleep plan for each patient would improve sleep and well being.
Therefore validated sleep questionnaires that measure sleep quality and screen for sleep apnoea will be administered. Wrist accelerometers will be given to patients on the acute psychiatry wards to measure sleep wake patterns and light levels over one week. Alongside this objective measures of light and noise levels overnight on the ward will be measured. This will allow objective assessment of the range of sleep problems on the ward to develop better and more personalised patient care plans.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EE/0052
Date of REC Opinion
23 Feb 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion