Sleep and Health (Nursing)

00:01 Hey, guys, welcome to the topic of sleep.

00:04 I don't know about you, but this one is near and dear to my heart.

00:08 If you're at nursing school, it's especially important for you.

00:11 You're probably not even getting enough of this.

00:13 But let's talk about how this is important for you to consider as a nurse or nursing student.

00:19 Now, when we talk about sleep, we're going to think about our circadian rhythm, so just think about this as like a 24-hour biological clock.

00:28 And when we think about our sleep, it is literally periods of awake and sleeping that alternate throughout that 24 hours.

00:37 The other thing to know about your circadian rhythm, it's tied to lots of different pieces about your body, your hormones and how you function but it can definitely be affected by all kinds of factors.

00:49 It could be affected by maybe your environment that you sleep in.

00:53 It could be affected by the timing of your routines, for example, about when you go to bed or maybe even when you work out throughout the day.

01:03 Now, let's talk about why sleep is so important.

01:06 So you see all these bubbles here, but there's lots of these are why it's so important on your patient's health.

01:12 So during sleep, we may have some enlightenment through our dreams and especially strengthening our immune system is a biggie.

01:20 Do you ever think about especially when you're in nursing school and you haven't been sleeping much and you start not feeling well and you catch a cold? Well, that's probably why, because you're not getting enough sleep.

01:32 The next thing is physical restoration.

01:35 So as you can imagine, throughout the day, our body takes a lot of tolls from various activities we do, or maybe strenuous exercise.

01:43 Physical restoration to give the time to reset and restore is really helpful.

01:49 And guys, I can't talk about mood enough.

01:52 I don't know about you, but my mood is definitely affected and my mental health, if I don't get enough sleep.

01:58 Also, I can't really process information very well.

02:01 I just remember as a nursing student, there were times I would stay up till 3 o'clock in the morning for that test at 8 AM.

02:09 I remember looking in that test question and thinking, okay, is this what it's really asking, reading it 3 or 4 times because I'm not really picking it up.

02:18 Well, it definitely affects how we process information and how we take our exams, for example.

02:24 Also, cleansing of those toxins in the brain and again, restoring the patient's normal homeostasis.

02:32 Now, let's talk about some physical illnesses that can be actually caused by sleep disturbances.

02:38 Mood disorders are a big one.

02:40 A great example of this is maybe anxiety, depression.

02:44 And I'm not sure if you guys have heard but depression, for example, it can swing both ways in regarding sleep, meaning, sometimes if someone has mild depression, they can sleep a whole lot, having to go to sleep maybe during the day when they normally wouldn't, sleeping long hours, going back to bed at night or some cases of depression can also result in insomnia to where we stay awake all night as well.

03:09 And this is not good for body's health and well-being.

03:13 Next, high blood pressure.

03:15 So a lack of sleep can definitely increase your cardiovascular risk and also can lead to other things for you as a patient.

03:23 Now, let's talk about those effects of physical illness.

03:26 So some of your patients may have different illnesses or disease processes, and these can definitely cost sleep disturbances.

03:33 So this could be as a result of pain, maybe just the discomfort the patient's having or mood alterations.

03:40 So let's take a look at some of these.

03:42 So if a patient has a respiratory condition such as COPD, maybe even your seasonal allergies or asthma, this can definitely, if you can't breathe, if you think about it, it's going to be really hard to sleep.

03:54 Also, some patients with respiratory conditions, they may have to have their head a bit up, elevated during their sleep just so they can breathe better.

04:04 And that can definitely affect a patient's sleep, and quality of sleep.

04:08 Also, nocturia is a great example.

04:10 So what I mean by this, in the evening, the patient may have to urinate frequently during the night.

04:16 This can definitely make the patient get up, get down out of bed, and it's really hard to get back to sleep this way.

04:23 And guys, pain's a biggie.

04:25 Our chronic pain patients for several different reasons, it's really hard to get comfortable when you're in chronic pain.

04:31 And this could be knee pain, back pain, you name it, but this will also affect our sleep, and our quality of sleep.

04:38 Here's the specific disorder that quite frequently causes sleep disturbances for a patient.

04:44 This is called restless leg syndrome.

04:47 And kind of think about when you can't sleep and you're tossing and turning, and your legs are going.

04:52 This is much like that, but it's a little bit more severe for these patients.

04:56 Many times we'll treat that with medications because, again, RLS can affect patient's sleep.

05:03 Now, let's take a look at different requirements and patterns across his lifespan.

05:08 So just when we look at this long graph here, all I want you to pick up is it's going to vary depending on age.

05:14 And typically the older we get, the less sleep that we require.

05:19 So we talk about our little bitty guys, our neonates.

05:21 This is about 16 hours a day.

05:23 So if you think about a 24-hour period, it's much of the day, right? And next, when they grow in the infants, they can require a little less of sleep, usually about 8 to 10 hours a night, and maybe there's some naps in there as well.

05:37 And next, when they grow about the toddler age, they're going to need at least about 12 hours.

05:42 So that's why sometimes I don't know if you remember, but those preschools, you've got our toddlers or daycares, a lot of times they'll put the toddlers down for a nap.

05:51 And here in the middle, preschoolers, they need like 12 hours a night.

05:56 So it's important for consistent early bedtime routines for the little guys.

06:01 Now we get a little bit older school age, about nine to 10 hours is great.

06:06 And when they get a little bit older, about 7 and a half hours is good for those adolescent teens.

06:12 Now, our young adults, so about 6-8 1/2 hours, guys, sometimes I'll tell you even at 6, sometimes that's not enough.

06:19 So you see there's a range here.

06:21 Now, our middle to our older adults, this total number is going to decline the older we get.

06:27 And this is going to vary depending on the person's bedtime routines that are scheduled throughout the day, but they need, as you can see, much less sleep than the neonates, for example, on this chart.