Sound Interventions on Promoting Sleep Quality in ICUs: a Systematic Review
Published 2025-06-11
Keywords
- Sleep Quality,
- Nursing Care,
- Sound,
- Environmental Health,
- Hospitalised Patients
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2024 Rui Guerreiro, Márcia Silva, Sílvia Mendonça, Cândida Durão, Joana Teixeira, Helga Henriques
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Introduction
The id.Care project aims to co-create, develop, implement and evaluate bundles of nursing interventions that promote a safe environment in the care of people with complex chronic illnesses, in acute or critical care contexts. One of the axes of the project is the provision of care. Promoting sleep quality is fundamental to the well-being and recovery of critically ill patients in intensive care units (ICUs).1,2,3 Sound interventions have the potential to improve sleep quality, although evidence still limited.
Objective
To evaluate the effect of sound interventions that promote sleep quality of critically ill patients in ICUs.
Methods
A systematic literature review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA and SWiM recommendations. The research question was: What is the effect of a sound interventions (I) on promoting the sleep quality (O) in ICUs (P)? The research took place in February 2024 in MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Web of Science and Scopus databases, with no temporal limit. The keywords used were: Environmental Health; Inpatients; Nursing care; Sleep Quality; Sound. Studies investigating the impact of sound interventions on sleep quality in ICUs were included. Two researchers were responsible for selecting the studies, extracting the data and analysing the risk of bias based on predefined criteria. The quality of the studies was evaluated in accordance with the recommendations of the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal.
Results
Eleven studies were included. They highlight the use of classical music, relaxation music and nature sounds. Interventions took place at night, before bedtime, and varied in duration from five minutes to the whole night. Potential benefits for critically ill patients were described.
Conclusion
Sound interventions improve sleep quality of critically ill patients in ICUs. Nurses play a crucial role in managing healthcare environments. The results of this study suggest further research into the effectiveness of sound intervention.