Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Sleep Quality and Neurocognitive Performance

Despite decades of scientific interest in evaluating sleep among critically ill patients, little is known about the effects of intensive care unit (ICU)-associated sleep disturbances on patient outcomes. Furthermore, few interventions have been rigorously evaluated to demonstrate efficacy in improving sleep in the ICU and associated patient outcomes. Post-ICU neurocognitive test performance data from this study will be linked to a pre-existing Quality Improvement (QI) project for patient sleep in the MICU. We hypothesize that patients' post-ICU neurocognitive performance (delirium status, attention, short-term memory, processing speed, and executive function) will positively correlate with scores from a previously-published Sleep in the Intensive Care Unit Questionnaire. In addition, we hypothesize that both neurocognitive performance and the Sleep in the Intensive Care Unit Questionnaire will improve during the multi-stage MICU-wide sleep QI project. Our project will provide valuable empirical evidence to help support guidelines for promoting sleep in the ICU setting.