Noise and Sleep Among Adult Medical Inpatients: Far From a Quiet Night

Despite the importance of sleep for recovery, hospital noise may put patients at risk for sleep loss and its associated negative effects.Objectively measured hospital noise can range as high as 67 dB in the intensive care unit to 42 dB in surgical wards, far from the World Health Organization (WHO) international recommendations of 30 dB for patient rooms. 1 Although almost half of Medicare patients report that their hospital rooms were not quiet at night, data to objectively characterize noise levels and sleep in hospitalized adults in medical wards are limited. 2One study that objectively measured sleep and noise among hospitalized adults older than 70 years found no association. 3This study aimed to objectively measure noise and sleep duration in adult medical ward patients. MethodsEligible patients were community-dwelling ambulatory adults older than 50 years who were not transferred from the intensive care unit and enrolled in an ongoing study of general medicine inpatients at the University of Chicago Medical Center. 4Patients with a known sleep disorder (ie, obstructive sleep apnea), with cognitive impairment (score of <17 on a telephone version of the Mini-Mental State Examination), under respiratory isolation, or admitted for more than 72 hours were excluded.