Purpose: To empirically describe the sleep experience of family caregivers (n=13) of advanced cancer patients. Method: Mixed methodology using: family interviews; Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS); Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); and actigraphy measurement. Qualitative data analysis utilized constant comparative content techniques. Actiware for the actigraphy data and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences-15 (SPSS-15) generated descriptive and correlation statistics. Findings: The over arching theme “sleeping with one eye open” captures the vigilant nature of caregivers’ sleep experiences. Caregiver narratives were validated by quantitative findings: 5 of the family caregivers (38.5 percent) had an ESS score ≥ 11 indicative of excessive daytime sleepiness, all caregivers had a PSQI global score > 5 indicative of moderate to severe sleep problems, and actigraphy scores — including total sleep time, sleep efficiency, and time awake after sleep onset — fell beyond normal values documented in the literature. Conclusion: Impeccable assessment of the patient's and family's sleep status, sleep education, intervention strategies, and high-quality respite services are critical in community-based palliative care.

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Nurse educators should consider using ABP as students found that this approach offered a meaningful way of learning and resulted in the development of important competencies for professional nursing. The QN studies provide a very low level of evidence that ABP improved students' knowledge acquisition, level of empathy, attitude toward others, emotional states, level of reflective practice, learning behaviors and aspects of cognitive/ethical maturity. Although the QN findings can inform future research, the evidence is not robust enough to demonstrate improved outcomes.

Heart rate variability (HRV) measurement is an important tool in cardiac care that can provide clinicians and researchers with a 24-hour noninvasive measure of autonomic nervous system activity. Sleep and wake have profoundly different effects on HRV patterns and therefore significant implications for HRV interpretation. This article provides a brief overview of the processes underlying HRV, the standard measures of HRV, a basic overview of wake and sleep, the HRV patterns associated with different sleep and wake states, and the patterns of HRV exhibited in common cardiac conditions. The article concludes with an overview of some general health history factors that are important to consider when interpreting HRV patterns in the clinical and research setting.