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Myeloma ASCT? Expect Sleep Interruptions
If you are preparing to undergo an autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) for myeloma and you are going to spend several weeks in a hospital, expect sleep interruptions while at the hospital.
It might sound odd that a cancer patient undergoing a procedure costing hundreds of thousands of dollars has to endure sleep interruptions during his/her hospital stay.
My two biggest complaints stemming from my 19 day hospital stay while I received an ASCT were sleep interruptions and lousy food. This post is about sleep interruptions so I’ll focus on that.
If you know anything about how hospitals operate however, you can understand why patient comfort (quiet) can be secondary to nurses and doctors providing medical care.
Why is a a good night’s sleep important for hospital patients?
- Healing and Recovery: Sleep is vital for the body’s healing processes. During deep sleep, the body repairs tissues, muscles, and bones, and the immune system becomes more active in fighting infections and inflammation.
- Immune Function: Quality sleep enhances the immune system, making patients more capable of fighting infections and responding better to treatments.
- Pain Management: Adequate sleep can help in managing pain. Poor sleep can lower the pain threshold, making patients more sensitive to discomfort.
- Mental Health: Sleep is essential for mental well-being. It helps in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression, which are common among hospitalized patients.
- Cognitive Function: Good sleep improves cognitive functions, such as memory, decision-making, and concentration. This is important for patients to understand their treatment plans and participate in their recovery.
- Metabolism and Appetite: Sleep influences metabolism and appetite. Disrupted sleep can lead to poor nutritional intake, which can impede recovery.
- Medication Efficacy: Some medications work better when patients have a regular sleep pattern. Sleep disruptions can alter how medications are metabolized and their effectiveness.
- Overall Quality of Life: Good sleep contributes to a better overall quality of life, making the hospital experience less stressful and more conducive to recovery.
A good night’s sleep is important for the patient, and lots of ailing patients all within shouting distance of one another is necessary for the hospital to provide patient care. What does the cancer patient do?
The “sleep kit” discussed below as well as the short video explaining sleep hygiene seem to provide possible solutions for cancer patients undergoing an ASCT.
I would also like to plug a couple of sleep aids aids that I use myself. And those are:
- Melatonin and
- CBD oil (Charlotte’s Web))
Both are gentle on me (no grogginess upon waking) and both help me stay asleep.
If you would like to learn more about autologous stem cell transplantation for MM patients, email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com
Thank you,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Intervention Improves Sleep in Hospitalized Patients
“A hospital stay often means poor sleep, but empowering hospitalized patients to take action can lead to better sleep, new research suggested.
Results from a randomized controlled trial showed that patients who watched a 5-minute video as part of an intervention called I-SLEEP slept longer and were less likely to experience sleep disruptions due to vital sign monitoring, receipt of medication, and testing.
“We have done a lot of prior work training staff and using electronic health record ‘nudges’ to promote sleep through forgoing nighttime vitals or labs for stable patients,” principal investigator Vineet Arora, MD, with the University of Chicago, Chicago, told Medscape Medical News…
Empowering Patients
Arora and colleagues evaluated the impact of I-SLEEP vs usual care (control) in 175 general medicine patients (contributing 439 nights of survey data and 238 nights of actigraphy) with similar baseline characteristics.
The 80 patients in the control group and 95 in the I-SLEEP groups both received a sleep kit containing earplugs, eye masks, and a brochure from the National Institutes of Health titled “Tips to Get Healthy Sleep.”
The I-SLEEP group also received a 5-minute video emphasizing the importance of sleep hygiene and encouraging them to advocate for reduced sleep disruptions.
In both unadjusted and adjusted analyses, patients with I-SLEEP reported fewer disruptions due to vital sign monitoring (63% vs 74%), medications (49% vs 60%), and tests (57% vs 69%) than control patients (P = .02, for all).
Sleep duration was greater on I-SLEEP nights than on standard nights (334 minutes vs 309 minutes), but this difference was not statistically significant (P = .16).
However, an interaction between I-SLEEP and study night revealed that patients in I-SLEEP gained an additional 15 minutes of sleep per night during the intervention, which was significant (P = .04)…
‘Patients’ Biggest Grievance’
Another study presented at the meeting underscored the need for sleep interventions for hospital patients.
Researchers used a 14-item questionnaire to investigate sleep quality, patterns, and use of sleep aids among 90 adult inpatients (59% men) who spent at least two nights in a general medical ward. No patients were pregnant, incapacitated, or had encephalopathy or a known sleep disorder.
The researchers found that sleep quality declined significantly during hospitalization, with 64% of patients rating it as poor or very poor compared with 30% reporting poor sleep quality at home.
“Ask any doctor, and they will tell you their patients’ biggest grievances pertain to poor sleep in the hospital,” investigator Erin Gould, MD, with the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, told Medscape Medical News.
“Sleep is crucial for every bodily process, including healing, and it is counterproductive to disturb the sleep of our patients. Performing research to improve the quality and quantity of sleep patients get in the hospital is important in helping them on their road to recovery,” Gould said.
The results of the study confirmed the researchers’ hypothesis that sleep quality at home surpasses that experienced during hospitalization with 70% reporting good or very good quality of sleep at home vs only 36% when hospitalized.
In addition, about 56% of patients reported trouble falling asleep in the hospital, and 69% struggled to stay asleep.
At home, about 43% of patients said they occasionally used sleeping aids, finding them somewhat, or very, helpful.
However, only 29% were offered sleep aids during their hospital stay, and 56% of those not offered a sleep aid wished they had received them. All patients who received sleep aids in the hospital found them helpful…”