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Sleep Disruption and Its Relationship with Delirium: Clinical Perspectives

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Sleep in Critical Illness

Abstract

Delirium and sleep disruption are each common in the intensive care unit (ICU); their potential inter-relationship is of great interest to ICU clinicians and researchers. These two conditions share common pathophysiologic mechanisms, including circadian pathways, risk factors and symptoms. Patients should be evaluated for the presence of psychologic distress that can result from either condition; nonpharmacologic interventions are the mainstay for both delirium and sleep deprivation treatment at this time. Controlled trials evaluating both medication and non-medication-based interventions to improve sleep have shown to reduce delirium; the lack of established benefit on sleep improvement is primarily related to the challenges of using subjective sleep assessment tools in the ICU and a lack of evaluation of key sleep domains like circadian alignment. A number of important avenues of research are required to better understand the inter-relationship between delirium and sleep in the ICU and those interventions best suited to improve both.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, McGill University, Quebec, Canada

    Yoanna Skrobik

  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

Authors
  1. Yoanna Skrobik
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  2. John W. Devlin
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Correspondence to John W. Devlin .

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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Skrobik, Y., Devlin, J.W. (2022). Sleep Disruption and Its Relationship with Delirium: Clinical Perspectives. In: Weinhouse, G.L., Devlin, J.W. (eds) Sleep in Critical Illness. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06447-0_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06447-0_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-06446-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-06447-0

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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