Sleep, Rest, and Comfort

Sleep is a regulated neurologic process that supports immune function, metabolism, pain control, memory, mood, and tissue repair. In hospital, sleep is disrupted by illness, alarms, procedures, light, fear, dyspnoea, pain, medications, and loss of normal cues. The resulting fatigue is not merely unpleasant: it worsens delirium, glucose control, blood pressure, pain sensitivity, mobility, and participation in care. Safe nursing care identifies why sleep is failing, protects consolidated rest, treats reversible causes, and avoids reflexively adding sedation when hypoxia, withdrawal, urinary retention, medication toxicity, or delirium is the real problem.