Sleep Improvement Through Melatonin Administration in ICU Patients and Kolcaba’s Theory of Comfort

WEEK 5 DQ 1: Sleep Improvement through Melatonin Administration in ICU Patients and Kolcaba’s Theory of Comfort
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WEEK 5 DQ 1: Sleep Improvement through Melatonin Administration in ICU Patients and Kolcaba’s Theory of Comfort
Among ICU patients, sleep patterns are severely disrupted due to several factors including their critical illnesses and external aspects such as noise, light, stress, constant sedative infusion, and other medications administered (Marini et al., 2016). In healthy individuals, the production of melatonin hormone in the pineal glands is promoted by darkness and peaks between the early hours and before getting out of bed. Besides enhancing sleep, melatonin plays other critical roles in the body, including serving as an antioxidant, infection inhibitor, and anticancer agent. Therefore, there should be a routine administration of the hormone in both chronic and acute stages in ICU patients to improve comfort and sleep. This practice of improving patients’ welfare is informed by different nursing theories ...