Meditation through virtual reality has a positive effect on the sleep of intensive care unit patients

Scoping review of the use of virtual reality in intensive care units

“…18,43,44,[48][49][50]61,64,65,67 The mean age of included participants ranged from 21 to 66.42 years. 43,44,49,51,52,68 There were seven different primary uses of VR in ICU (defined by primary aim of study), specifically relaxation, delirium, PTSD, sleep, lower limb function, early neurocognitive stimulation, and orientation (See Table 1 for full study characteristics).…”

“…The remaining papers were excluded due to not using VR headsets or being a commentary piece (see Figure 1 for PRISMA flow diagram 42 ). This resulted in 15 completed published studies and six registered trials being identified 18,43‐66 …”

“…The country of study varied with studies taking place in France, 55,56 Netherlands, 58,59,63 Singapore, 60 South Korea, 51,52 Switzerland, 45‐47,57 United Kingdom, 53,54 and the United States 18,43,44,48‐50,61,64,65,67 . The mean age of included participants ranged from 21 to 66.42 years 43,44,49,51,52,68 . There were seven different primary uses of VR in ICU (defined by primary aim of study), specifically relaxation, delirium, PTSD, sleep, lower limb function, early neurocognitive stimulation, and orientation (See Table 1 for full study characteristics).…”

“…All included studies were published between 2017 to 2020 18,43‐66 with the majority published in 2020 18,48,51‐53,56‐58,61,64,65 . The country of study varied with studies taking place in France, 55,56 Netherlands, 58,59,63 Singapore, 60 South Korea, 51,52 Switzerland, 45‐47,57 United Kingdom, 53,54 and the United States 18,43,44,48‐50,61,64,65,67 . The mean age of included participants ranged from 21 to 66.42 years 43,44,49,51,52,68 .…”

“…There was a statistically significant improvement for sleep quality scores, deep sleep and wake after sleep onset time when comparing VR meditation to improve sleep compared to standard interventions (ear plugs and mask) (50,51) [one random controlled trial, weak quality]. There was no statistically significant improvement for sleep time and the light sleep time when comparing VR meditation compared to standard intervention (50,51) [one random controlled trial, weak quality].…”