The aim of this study is to determine whether routinely providing patients admitted to hospital with two devices to help sleep - ear plugs, and an eyeshade - leads to patients having a better quality of sleep and/or longer, more satisfying sleep.
This is a prospective, investigator blinded, randomised controlled study involving all patients admitted to any of ten acute wards in a large, busy hospital serving both the local population of about 700,000 people and a wider area for specialist services. Patients will be identified at the time of admission and recruited as soon as possible by nursing and medical staff involved in the admission process. The primary exclusion criterion is some obvious reason that using the equipment is not possible (e.g. allergy to materials used). After gaining consent, from the patient, or assent from a relative if the person is unable to consent at the time, the patient will be registered and allocated a number. Each ward will have prefilled envelopes with a randomly determined group allocation within it, and after registration this will be opened to determine the patient's group. Each patient will be given a short information leaflet and consent form. Patients allocated to the intervention will be given the ear plugs and eye mask (in a plastic wallet, with instructions) and will be informed about their use. On the next morning (i.e. after the first night in hospital) the patient will be approached and asked if he or she agrees to provide outcome information. Specifically patients who were unable to give consent initially (or do not recall doing so) will have the project explained again. Provided the patient agrees, he or she will be given a SleepSure questionnaire to answer (with help if needed); this asks about quality and quantity of sleep, and use of aids to sleep. After discharge a researcher will also extract from the patient's clinical record (which is on computer, not paper) information such as length of stay and use of night sedation (zopiclone). Basic demographic data will be extracted, and the hospital's incident reporting system (also on computer) will be checked to identify any falls. All data will be recorded on a computerised data-base, anonymously, and the primary analysis will be a comparison of the two groups in terms of sleep quality, with secondary analyses investigating differences in rate of recorded falls, total amount of sleep medication used during hospital stay, and length of stay
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
206
The patient will be given a plastic wallet containing an eye mask and ear plugs, to be used when trying to sleep.
The patient will be given a plastic wallet containing an eye mask and ear plugs, to be used when trying to sleep.
This night sedation will be given to any patient requesting it, in either group
SleepSure (Questionnaire). A Short Questionnaire of the Quality and Quantity of Sleep, and Use of Aids.
SleepSure is a short questionnaire which asks the patient to rate their sleep using a 1-10 numerical rating scale for eight items covering the quality of their sleep (e.g. difficulty getting to sleep, interruptions). Two additional questions recorded the use of aids. It takes no more that 2-3 minutes to complete. The eight numerical rating scores are summed and divided by 8 to give a score from 1 (very good sleep) to 10 (very poor sleep).
Time frame: At end of first night in hospital after recruitment (i.e. the next morning)
Length of Stay
Time in days from admission to discharge from hospital (not from ward). These data were derived from the hospital administration data-base.
Time frame: From date of admission to date of discharge, up to 90 days
Use of Zopiclone (Night Sedation)
The number of patients taking zopiclone during their stay. Data was taken from the Electronic patient record and was not available for any patient not discharged at the end of the study (one in each group). NOT the original intention of measuring "the total dose of zopiclone taken during the admission will be recorded; this is available from the electronic drug chart used in the hospital"
Time frame: From date of admission to date of discharge, up to 90 days
Number of Falls
The number of falls, if any, will be extracted from the hospital incident recording system for the patient at the time of discharge. The data will be reported simply as the number of patients experiencing a fall; not the total number of falls experienced by the patients who had a fall. The data were taken from the electronic patient records and were not available for patients (n = 2) still in hospital at the time of discharge.
Time frame: From date of admission to date of discharge, up to 90 days
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