Aibu to think that hospitals should do more to promote sleep for patients on wards

[Twistandshout77]

The nhs seems stuck in a dark age that doesn't recognise the value of sleep and comfort on patients. How is anyone supposed to recover whilst getting next to no sleep on busy, noisy, hot/cold wards with bright lights, staff talking and creaky metal bin lids banging? I'm just back from a 2 night stay with my LO in which I averaged 3 hours broken sleep a night - it wasn't me that's sick but I came out feeling so! God knows how anyone with a serious illness manages. There's SO much that could be done - and not that expensively. I'm sure they'd see much faster recovery rates and therefore savings too if there was a focus on it. Aibu to think the NHS needs to revolutionise its attitude towards sleep for inpatients? What can I do to start a campaign?!

I agree OP. People should definitely have to use headphones for TVs as a minimum.

Lights out

I'm a frequent flyer. Lights aren't allowed out. Just dimmed. In case someone like me has the audacity to create a critical care situation in the middle of the night. Which had happened before on a previous occasion. Sorry about that.

I expect it shall be similar for the LOs as well. DD was often in & out with her asthma when she was smaller and the nurses need to be able to see what they were doing with some very poorly children.

You cant really expect peace and quite if theyre assessment wards anyway as you have a constant stream of patients coming in.

Totally agree. The lady next me to had her tv on all night long, the bin closing was like two cymbals being bashed together and the lady at the other side of me put the lights on in one side of the ward each time she did a nappy change. And dint get me started on the auxiliary who came round and woke us all up to tell us we should get up and get a shower at 645am - on a post natal ward

In the good old days you got given sleeping pills, brown ones, on the post-natal ward. They were wonderful! There was also a nursery with a night nurse.

This was a proper ward - I've done about 6 weeks with my LO over the past year and actually look forward to it she tests positive for a virus on admission so we can have a side room!

When I was in with ds3 who was 2 the lad in the bed opposite on the children's ward was a 6 foot 3 enormous lad. The contrast was hilarious. He had about 3 visitor each evening, street lads some of them, I felt intimidated by them. They chatted and swore and watched Big Brother loudly so it must have been after the end of visiting time. I'm sure they were there until around 11pm each evening. I thought that was wrong personally.

Not long home from a 10 day stay in a children's hospital, 6 bedded bays in an ortho ward. Some nights were better than others. It was all go at night with admissions from a&e. As well as some children being there after surgery, things that annoyed me, were late night visitors, loud talking on mobile phones, loud bin lid slamming, and electronics on with no headphones.

The nurses worked quietly, it was some parents that were the problem. Moaning about the fold out bed etc, mine was a lot more comfy than the bed provided in the parents accommodation. The new hospital they are building to replace it, has most single rooms with en suite facilities and a few 4 bedded bays. As much as I would have liked that at night time, during the day it was nice to talk to other parents.

I agree sleep is nearly impossible in a hospital, and I was in a private room!

I was recovering from an emergency c section, pre eclampsia, having regular blood pressure checks, babies down in neonatal, and at least twice the cleaner felt polishing my rooms floor at 6:30am would be a great idea

I get work and care needs to of course continue, but a little common sense at times would be great too.

After nearly 2 weeks in the hospital I pushed to be discharged as I just needed to get home and sleep,
To be able heal and get better.

Op I am so with you on this. When my mother was terminally ill on a ward, my father nearly lost his mind with the noise. He was so upset for her. Bins crashing (how hard can it be to run a bit of foam around the inside), staff chatting at full volume at the entrance to wards ("ah hello love, haven't seen you all week, what about Patricia, did she get the job?") at 2am!!!! I remember when I was in after giving birth to my son and losing lots of blood them telling me how important it was to rest. I was in a side room, the door squealed every time it was moved. And it moved a lot!

I very much appreciate the hard work in the NHS (married to someone working in it, I'm well aware of the struggles) but it doesn't take much consideration to close bins quietly, to have social conversations off the ward. These weren't isolated instances either.
I was next to an elderly lady on a ward who was crying out she needed the toilet. For 20 mins noone came. I got out of bed and trailed my drip stand to the nursing bay where an auxiliary was reading a paper. She told me woman had dementia and didn't know she had a catheter in. I explained how frightened she seemed to be and she said she'd come round "when she got a chance". 15 minutes later she came in, turned on all the lights and berated the poor little lady for wakening people up and said I had complained about her. This was at 330am.

My experiences of various hospitals at night have been just awful and I can't understand why it's allowed to continue.

I used to work nights and it really would depend on the ward to the amount of noise.

Some were pretty much silent and dark. Such as ENT. With staff working quietly to help patients. I tried to do any hourly obs without waking the patient if possible. (With their permission) Lights out at 11pm. Lights on at 6am for morning obs and the 7am cup of tea.

Others though, were lights on people in and out, doctors rushing round, cardiac arrests, porters wheeling beds and chair around. Nothing to be done about it really.

I think it depends on the patients and their ailments.

My personal view is that hospital is where yo got to be treated and given the amount of complaining about 9-5 care I have valued 24hr care.

Home is for recuperating.

FFS nobody is expecting a hotel or complete darkness or absolute silence in a ward, or the place to shut down, just some really basic common sense. Read the posts properly before you start with the "we are lucky we have the NHS it's the best in the world so shut up" routine. Some dense comments on here! The highly commended award goes to "you wouldn't get much sleep if your child was ill anyway". For goodness sake

My daughter was admitted for two nights earlier this week, so i hear you!!! I'm going to be catching up on my sleep for a while! DD had to be woken up at 10, 2 & 5 for IV antibiotics, ear drops and obs, and she screamed the place down each time, so i felt very bad for the other people on the ward, but nothing could be done really. The nurses where we were were pretty respectful of sleep, but even so it's very difficult to sleep there when you're in a shared ward with patients with different requirements.

I got woken up at 00.45 when I was in to ask what I wanted for lunch tomorrow. Not doing that would be good!

Cackle - surely treatment should be seen a bit holistically and rest and sleep included in it? Some people have to stay for weeks on end - the effects of sleep deprivation can be truly catastrophic on the body

The worst thing for me has always been overheating and lack of fresh air. I really can't deal with this in hospitals.

The other thing I struggled with was the lady shouting over and over but there was only so much staff could do about that
Had my op 10am - 4pm, didn't sleep until midnight as wired from the GA. Woke up as I posted above at 00.45 to take my lunch order. Awake then until 3.30am. Woke up at 5am for obs

YANBU. I was fuming after my c section. I'd finally got to sleep, in my private room, at 5am. 6am the fucking HCA came in and woke me up, asking if I wanted my cathetar out and to get up for a shower! No I bloody well didn't!

I had a laparoscopy once, was woken up in recovery and taken up to a ward, around 12pm. I felt awful as I desperately needed to go back to sleep but I just couldn't because of all the noise. But it was the day time so not much I could say. But putting someone who is trying to come around from a GA straight onto a busy ward with visitors and TVs blaring is just stupid. Woman next to me had her TV blaring all day and into the evening, no headphones, it shouldn't be allowed. I was due to be discharged the same day so it was the only thing keeping me going. Except they didn't get around to me for ages. I begged DH to get them to hurry because I felt so awful and needed to sleep. They said they had to do all their rounds first and DH wouldn't insist for me. Eventually at 9pm they said I should just stay the night. Over my dead body, I made them discharge me. Over 9 hours I had to wait like that.

Along with nighties and a sponge bag/towel etc. you must always pack ear plugs, noise cancelling headphones, and an eye mask...... sorted.

I hate this. I appreciate that they can't have the wards in total darkness,and that there's not much they can do about the patient in the bed next to you snoring like a rutting buffalo. But they CAN make sure that they don't keep clanging bin lids shut every 5 minutes (some wards have the silently closing ones,why can't they ALL be like that?!) And they CAN help congregating around the nurses' station at 2 in the morning,talking loudly and laughing. They may be at work,but it's night time and a lot of people are trying to sleep.

I had to stay in two nights last Year after having surgery.
I had my own room both nights.
The first night I remember it being quite peaceful and even when the Nurses came in to check it was done quietly and kindly.
However the second night I was moved to a different room and all night long I could hear the Nurses talking outside my door/trolleys being banged about and just lots of general noise.
Guess it depends where your room is?!
All I know is as soon as I was able to come home I felt a million times better and slept!

cackleberry4 is right. Hard as it is nhs staff have to work at night as well as in the day. The bins are difficult but hygiene and safety go hand in hand with round the clock care.

I totally agree that is some busy wards there is nothing you can do about some noise at night. Clearly very sick people need looking after but the noise we experienced at night was all on otherwise quiet wards and was needless. I love the sounds of the staff where you worked 00100001. I think that's all people are hoping for, staff doing their work with consideration for the exhausted people around them. Part of getting well is getting rest. You could cut your hospital stay through better rest and save the NHS money!!

Eg my cousin has epilepsy and her seizures go up when exhausted. She was in a catch 22 situation recently when in hospital for something else. The wards were so noisy at night she was exhausted and had more seizures so they kept her in longer and she got more exhausted!

The noisy and disorientating ward atmosphere may be ok if you are pretty healthy apart from the one thing you go in for and you can escape a few days later, but for elderly people, it can increase their disorientation and even tip them into hospital induced 'delirium' which can lead to dementia. It's that serious. It's not ok to just say- oh well, they are in hospital, people have to work 24/7 in hospitals. No, they don't actually, funnily enough a lot of the main services don't work 24/7 at all or on weekends, but the general effect of many wards is noisy and disorientating which is bad for all types of people who need a calmer environment in which to let their bodies recover from the trauma of being ill/being treated.

And why do they have to have hospital wards so damned hot? When I was in for an emergency hernia repair op 5 years ago,despite the fact that it was only early September and still 20 degrees outside,the heating was on full blast,24 hours a day! And in the ward I was in,I couldn't even open a window,as the patient who's bed was nearest to it complained that she felt cold with the window open.