Abstract Background Sleep is essential for recovery in hospitalized patients, yet frequent disruptions from medical care make rest difficult. Most prior efforts have focused on environmental modifications, often overlooking patients' role in advocating for their sleep. Objectives This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Inpatient Sleep Loss: Educating and Empowering Patients (I‐SLEEP) intervention in improving sleep duration and reducing medical care disruptions among hospitalized patients. Methods In this single‐center randomized controlled trial (NCT04151251), general medicine patients at the University of Chicago were randomized to either I‐SLEEP (sleep education, advocacy questions, and a sleep kit) or standard care (sleep kit alone) between July 2019 and March 2023. The primary outcome was patient‐reported sleep duration. Secondary outcomes included actigraphy‐measured sleep duration and continuity (efficiency and wake after sleep onset), as well as patient‐reported sleep disruptions. Mixed effects models adjusted for covariates were used for analysis. Results A total of 194 participants were enrolled. There were no significant differences in demographic characteristics between groups. Sleep duration and continuity did not differ significantly between groups. However, patients receiving I‐SLEEP reported fewer disruptions from vital sign monitoring (63% vs. 75%, p = .004), medication administration (49% vs. 61%, p = .003), and laboratory draws (57% vs. 68%, p = .009). These findings remained significant after adjusting for covariates. Conclusions I‐SLEEP did not increase sleep duration or continuity but reduced medical care disruptions. These findings suggest that patient education and empowerment may be effective strategies for reducing preventable care‐related sleep disruptions in hospitals. Further research should examine implementation at scale and potential long‐term benefits.
Sunderrajan et al. (Fri,) studied this question.