Sleep Questionnaire (RCSQ) Instrument Analysis

Research to evaluate interventions to promote sleep in critically ill patients has been restricted by the lack of brief, inexpensive outcome measures (Richards, O'Sullivan, & Phillips, 2000). Usually the critically ill are given different medications that help them sleep. However, in many cases this is insufficient to achieve enough rest and sleep periods are generally fragmented and with decreased restrictiveness. Most researchers believe that a few days of partial sleep or even complete sleep deprivation in a healthy adult for brief periods is completely benign. However, for patients in critical care settings the effects of sleep deprivation can contribute to major complications.

Sleep is divided into two distinctive states, rapid eye movement (REM) and nonREM states. The former is defined by periods of episodic burst of rapid eye movements and the later (NREM) has a set of sub-stages that include for separate phases that can...
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