No abstract

We performed a prospective observational study of 118 parents of critically ill children using objective measures of sleep and validated scales to assess fatigue and sleepiness. We found that more than a quarter of nights met criteria for acute sleep deprivation, there was considerable variability in the amount of nocturnal sleep that individual participants slept on different nights, and sleep was fragmented with a large portion of the night spent awake. Future research should focus on interventions that improve parents' ability to return to sleep upon awakening and maintain regular sleep-wake schedules.

No abstract

In general, parents are given the opportunity to stay at the bedside overnight, but barriers exist that limit opportunities for sleep during their child's hospitalization, and serve to separate families who have a hospitalized child.