The objectives of this research were to explore sleep quality, perceived factors interfering with sleep and intervention  activities, and their relationships among patients receiving mechanical ventilation in the Respiratory Care Unit of a university hospital. The subjects included 60 hospitalized patients receiving mechanical ventilation. A questionnaire-based interview was used to collect demographic data and data on sleep quality and factors interfering with sleep. Nurses also monitored and recorded the patients' sleep and interventions given to each patient around 24 hours. Descriptive statistics and Pearson's product moment correlation were used to analyze the data. The findings were as follows:
The subjects had poor sleep quality, a mean sleep quality score of 33.23 (SD=6.42 ) with a possible score of 0-80 and total sleep time in 24 hours of 240 minutes (SD 51.75) or approximately 4 hours. They received intervention activities on average 63.4 times (SD 2.38). The most frequent activities given to the patients were suctioning, taking vital signs and giving medication, respectively.
The subjects reported factors prominently interfering with sleep as 1) Physical factors including suctioning, pain from oral tissue injury, dry mouth and throat, dyspnea, changing position every 2 hours and venepuncture. 2) Psychological factors including nightmares, fear of extubation, and weaning from mechanical ventilation. 3) Environmental factors including hot temperature of the unit, staff talking, noise from other patients, continuous sound from monitors and constant bright lights.
Sleep quality had negative correlations with the numbers of physical and environmental factors intefering with sleep, the total numbers of interventions given to the patients and the frequency of suctioning.
The findings suggest a need to reduce or eliminate the factors interfering with sleep in patients receiving mechanical ventilation.