The Effect of Nocturnal Patient Care Interventions on Patient Sleep and Satisfaction With Nursing Care in Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit Gu ¨ lay Altun Ug ˘ras $, Sultan Babayigit, Keziban Tosun, Gu ¨ ler Aksoy, Yu ¨ ksel Turan ABSTRACT Background: Sleep disturbance in an intensive care unit is a common problem. One of the main factors causing sleep disturbances in an intensive care unit is nocturnal patient care interventions. Aims and objectives: This study aims to determine the impact of patient care interventions performed at night in a neurosurgical intensive care unit on patients’ sleep and their nursing care satisfaction. Methods: The descriptive study was conducted on 82 patients in a neurosurgical intensive care unit between January 2009 and March 2010. The data were collected by data collection instruments and Newcastle Satisfaction with Nursing Scales. The data were statistically analyzed by frequency, mean, standard deviation, chi-square, and MannYWhitney U test. Results: The study showed that 53.7% of the patients experienced sleep disturbances in the neurosurgical intensive care unit. Because of nursing interventions at night, 39.1% of these patients had their sleep affected, but this problem did not cause any negative impact on the patients’ satisfaction (Newcastle Satisfaction with Nursing Scales score = 88.21 T 9.83). The patients received, on average, 42.21 T 7.45 times patient care interventions at night; however, the frequency of patient care interventions at night showed no effect on sleep disturbances in this study (p 9 .05). The most frequently given patient care interventions were, respectively, vital signs monitoring, neurological assessment, and repositioning in bed. These interventions were performed commonly at 6 A.M., 12 A.M., and 7 P .M. Conclusion: In this study, despite the patients reporting sleep disturbances in the neurosurgical intensive care unit because of nocturnal patient care interventions that prevented them from sleeping, the patients’ satisfaction on the given nursing care was not negatively impacted. To reduce sleep disturbances because of nursing care initiatives and promote uninterrupted sleep in the intensive care unit, it can be useful to develop new protocols regulating night care activities. Keywords: intensive care unit, nocturnal patient care interventions, nursing care satisfaction, sleep disturbances S leep is essential to generate the energy to recovery from illness (DeKeyser, 2003; Dennis, Lee, Woodard, Szalaj, & Walker, 2010; Fontana & Pittiglio, 2010). During sleep, protein synthesis and cell division are organized and result in a restorative process (Dennis et al., 2010). Sleep disturbance in in- tensive care units (ICUs) is a common and known problem (Bourne & Mills, 2004; DeKeyser, 2003; Fontana & Pittiglio, 2010). ICU patients may have difficulty in falling asleep; experience diminished rapid eye movement sleep and changes in their circadian rhythms; wake up more often than normal or be awakened because of noise, anxiety, pain, frequent treatments, and nursing care interventions and mon- itoring activities (Boyko, Krding, & Jennum, 2012; Cmiel, Karr, Gasser, Oliphant, & Neveau, 2004; DeKeyser, 2003). The negative effects of lack of sleep on ICU patients’ bodies can start to be observed within as little as 24Y48 hours. The rise in stress level increases the serum cortisol level. This causes a reduction Journal of Neuroscience Nursing 104 Questions or comments about this article may be directed to Gu ¨ lay Altun Ug ˘ras $, PhD RN, at carpediem0803@yahoo.com. She is an Assistant Professor, Health School of Surgical Nursing Department, Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey. Sultan Babayigit, RN, is a Registered Nurse, Istanbul Cerrahpas $a Medical Faculty, Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey. Keziban Tosun, RN, is Head Nurse, Cerrahpas $a Medical Faculty, Neurosurgery Department, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey. Gu ¨ ler Aksoy, PhD, is Professor, Nursing High School, Department of Surgical Nursing, Halic University, Istanbul, Turkey. Yu ¨ ksel Turan, RN, is a Registered Nurse, Istanbul Cerrahpas $a Medical Faculty, Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey. The work was performed at the Intensive Care Unit, Department of Neurosurgery, Istanbul University Cerrahpas $a School of Medicine. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Supplemental digital content is available for this article. Direct URL cita- tions appear in the printed text and are provided in the HTML and PDF versions of this article on the journal’s Web site (www.jnnonline.com). Copyright B 2015 American Association of Neuroscience Nurses DOI: 10.1097/JNN.0000000000000122 Copyright © 2015 American Association of Neuroscience Nurses. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.