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Long-Term Outcomes: Sleep in Survivors of Critical Illness

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Sleep in Critical Illness

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Abstract

Critical care survivors frequently experience cognitive, physical, and psychological sequelae (often labelled post-intensive care syndrome) that affect their wellbeing and quality of life. Sleep disturbances frequently occur during and after an ICU admission and affect these important components of ICU survivorship. Insomnia, sleep fragmentation and circadian abnormalities worsen ICU physical, cognitive, and psychological recovery. Recovery from critical illness requires holistic attention including an adequate quantity and quality of sleep. Sleep abnormalities during and after ICU admission occur in up to 60% of ICU survivors. Sleep after hospitalization may be assessed objectively (actigraphy or polysomnography) but most often using patients’ self-reported sleep quality. Sleep during the post-ICU recovery period may be related to concurrent disease and insomnia, severity of illness and sleep disturbances in the ICU, and health-related quality of life, pain and mental health symptoms during recovery. Associations between disrupted sleep and ICU survivors’ outcomes are likely bidirectional. Effective strategies for sleep promotion during the ICU recovery period include seeing the general practitioner, referral to a sleep specialist, advice on sleep hygiene practices and use of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia. Future research is required to investigate the causes of sleep disruption after critical illness and interventions to ameliorate sleep disturbance.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Sharon McKinley

  2. Malcolm Fisher Intensive Care Unit, Royal North Shore Hospital, Northern Sydney Local Health District and Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Rosalind Elliott & Julia Pilowsky

  3. Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Wade Stedman

Authors
  1. Sharon McKinley
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  2. Rosalind Elliott
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  3. Wade Stedman
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  4. Julia Pilowsky
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rosalind Elliott .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Gerald L. Weinhouse

  2. Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University and Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    John W. Devlin

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McKinley, S., Elliott, R., Stedman, W., Pilowsky, J. (2022). Long-Term Outcomes: Sleep in Survivors of Critical Illness. In: Weinhouse, G.L., Devlin, J.W. (eds) Sleep in Critical Illness. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06447-0_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06447-0_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-06446-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-06447-0

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