Non-pharmacological solutions to sleep and circadian rhythm disruption: voiced bedside experiences of hospice and end-of-life staff caregivers.

BACKGROUND: Sleep disturbance is a significant issue, particularly for patients with advanced terminal illness. Currently, there are no practice-based recommended approaches for managing sleep and circadian disruptions in this population. To address this gap, a cross-sectional focus group study was performed engaging 32 staff members at four hospices/end-of-life programs in three demographically diverse counties in New York State. METHODS: Participants responded to structured open-ended questions. Responses were transcribed and subjected to qualitative content analysis. The themes and recommendations for improved practice that emerged were tabulated using Atlas TI qualitative software. RESULTS: This report details the experiences of hospice and end-of-life care staff in managing sleep and circadian disruptions affecting patients and analyzes their recommendations for improving care. Caregivers involved in the study described potential interventions that would improve sleep and reduce circadian disruptions. They particularly highlighted a need for improved evaluation and monitoring systems, as well as sleep education programs for both formal and informal caregivers. CONCLUSIONS: The voiced experiences of frontline hospice and end-of-life caregivers confirmed that disruption in sleep and circadian rhythms is a common issue for their patients and is not effectively addressed in current research and practice. The caregivers' recommendations focused on management strategies and underscored the need for well-tested interventions to promote sleep in patients receiving end-of-life care. Additional research is needed to examine the effectiveness of systematic programs that can be easily integrated into the end-of-life care process to attenuate sleep disturbances.

An Integrative Review of Nonpharmacological Interventions to Improve Sleep among Adults with Advanced Serious Illness.

BACKGROUND: Sleep fragmentation is common among those with advanced serious illness. Nonpharmacological interventions to improve sleep have few, if any, adverse effects and are often underutilized in these settings. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to summarize the literature related to nonpharmacological interventions to improve sleep among adults with advanced serious illness. METHODS: We systematically searched six electronic databases for literature reporting sleep outcomes associated with nonpharmacological interventions that included participants with advanced serious illness during the period of 1996-2016. RESULTS: From a total of 2731 results, 42 studies met the inclusion criteria. A total of 31 individual interventions were identified, each evaluated individually and some in combination with other interventions. Twelve of these studies employed either multiple interventions within an intervention category (n = 8) or a multicomponent intervention consisting of interventions from two or more categories (n = 5). The following intervention categories emerged: sleep hygiene (1), environmental (6), physical activity (4), complementary health practices (11), and mind-body practices (13). Of the 42 studies, 22 demonstrated a statistically significant, positive impact on sleep and represented each of the categories. The quality of the studies varied considerably, with 17 studies classified as strong, 17 as moderate, and 8 as weak. CONCLUSIONS: Several interventions have been demonstrated to improve sleep in these patients. However, the small number of studies and wide variation of individual interventions within each category limit the generalizability of findings. Further studies are needed to assess interventions and determine effectiveness and acceptability.