[Sleep disturbances and sleep hygiene in hemodialysis patients at hospitals affiliated to Shaheed Beheshti medical university]

ABSTRACT

Sleep is one of the most important needs of a person. In addition to restoring physical and mental well-being, it decreases stress and anxiety and improves the ability of coping and concentrating on activities of daily living. Sleep disturbances are very common in hemodialysis patients and can be observed in more than %50 of them, which can be reduced by applying hygienic recommendations as well as decreasing disturbing factors. The aim of this descriptive study was to assess sleep disturbances and hygiene in hemodialysis patients at hospitals affiliated to Shaheed Beheshti Medical University. 171 hemodialysis patients were randomly selected. Data were collected by interview via a questionnaire in the form of Likert scale with three parts including demographic and affective variables, sleep problems, and sleep hygiene. Content validity was used to validate it and its reliability was achieved by test-retest method. Results showed that 34.5, 57.9, and 7.6 percent of the patients had low, moderate and high sleep disturbances respectively. Sleeping disturbances included delayed sleeping [%42.1], frequent awakening [%63.2], early rising [%17.6], excessive sleepiness [%25.1] and restless legs [%22.3]. Only %6.4 of patients had proper sleep hygiene. %72.5 and %21.1 of the subjects had moderate and weak sleep hygiene respectively. There was a significant correlation between sleep disturbances and sleep hygiene [p<0.01]. Moreover, the patients reported such problems as bone pain, dyspnea, cramp, pruritus, coughing, and dry mouth with a significant correlation with sleep disturbances. Sleep disturbances significantly correlated with sleep hygiene. In other words, those who don't observe sleep hygiene, take sleeping drugs, or suffer from bone pain, dyspnea, cramp, pruritus, coughing, and dry mouth reported more sleep disturbances. Nurses can apply the above to assess, diagnose, prevent and control sleep disturbances and their side effects