A Method for Objective Assessment of Rest Activity Patterns and Light Levels in the Icu

Abstract

Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), experience disturbed sleep due to environmental factors, as well as critical illness itself. Insufficient and fragmented sleep is linked to increased morbidity, mortality, and ICU length of stay. Despite these correlations, objectively measured sleep and circadian patterns are not routinely examined in ICU patients, and assessment methods are not standardized. In this study, we devised a method to use wrist actigraphy to examine rest-activity patterns and light in a medical ICU.