The Night Time
Many patients find sleeping difficult at night for various reasons. The lights on the unit are turned out early, at about 9:30 in the evening, and you may have slept during the day. There are constant disturbances on the unit because patients need medication throughout the night. You may be sharing a room with a very sick patient who needs constant nursing, or you may feel feverish and unwell yourself. However, there are several non-habit-forming drugs available to overcome sleeping problems, and these are often offered to you to be used as required.
If you are kept awake by disturbances in the unit, you must accept that other patients have needs that must be fulfilled. If the disturbance is made by the night staff and you think that the noise is unnecessary, you should talk the matter over with the hospital representative. If the noise is unavoidable (for instance, moving an emergency admission into the ward after an operation), this can be explained to you. If not, the hospital representative can take up the legitimate complaint. Patients are sometimes afraid to make a complaint about hospital employees, because their temporary dependency makes them fear a reprisal. Complaints are always handled confidentially. There are a variety of ways in which the validity of a complaint can be verified without involving the patient who made the allegation.
While the patients sleep, the night staff is working. One of their duties is to make regular rounds of all the rooms to verify that the patients are in fact asleep, that the breathing is regular, and the pulse is steady. The night rounds are important, because falls can occur during the night when a patient leaves his or her bed in order to visit the bathroom, possibly imagining himself or herself at home. You should not usually be aware of night rounds.
