Nursing-Based Sleep Promotion Intervention Effectiveness for Post Cardiac Surgery Patients: Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Sleep is a fundamental prerequisite for physical and mental health. Poor quality of sleep is common among post-cardiac surgery patients and leads to serious health conditions.

Objective: To conduct a systematic review that investigates the effectiveness of eye masks, earplugs and deep-breathing exercise on sleep quality among post-cardiac surgery patients.

Design: A systematic review of interventional studies was established to meet the PRISMA guidelines.

Methods: PRISMA guidelines were used to assess the findings of 11 selected studies that met the inclusion criteria, published between 2007 and 2023 across four databases: CINAHL, JDNR, MEDLINE and PubMed. The search was conducted on 23 November 2023.

Results: The 11 most eligible studies were analysed. All of them were interventional, encompassing a total of 787 participants. Randomised controlled trials were the most common design. Interventions included eye masks, earplugs and deep-breathing exercises. The Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire was the most used assessment scale. Most of the reviewed studies found that the use of non-pharmacological interventions (eye masks, earplugs and deep-breathing exercise) significantly improves the quality of sleep. These interventions were also found to have potentially positive effects on reducing pain and delirium experienced by patients after undergoing cardiac surgery.

Conclusions: Non-pharmacological interventions (eye masks, earplugs and deep-breathing exercise) were found to be cost-effective interventions that could be easily applied in the clinical setting and are effective in improving the quality of sleep among patients after cardiac surgery.

Keywords: cardiac surgery; deep‐breathing exercise; earplugs; eye masks; nursing‐based interventions; quality of sleep; sleep promotion; systematic review.