Effectiveness of Aromatherapy Massage on Sleep Quality and Physiological Parameters of Post-Operative Cardiothoracic Surgery Patients

Critically ill patients suffer from decreased sleep quality, especially in patients who fear death and are more severely ill. The critical care experience is stressful for patients and can result in numerous physiological and psychological effects, including physiological instability as an increase in the heart rate (HR), respiration rate (RR), and risk of cardiac dysrhythmias, leading to prolonged length of stay and subsequent complications. Sleep is affected by a variety of factors, including hospitalization and the severity of the disease. Therefore, improving the sleep quality of cardiac patients is one of the most important nursing interventions.

Sleep is a circadian state characterized by the partial or total suspension of consciousness, voluntary muscle inhibition, and relative insensitivity to stimulation. Sleep quality is an individual's general satisfaction with the sleep experience, and its main components are the quantity of sleep, sleep continuity, and a reviving feeling upon awakening. Short sleep duration is defined as less than seven hours of sleep per 24-hour period.

Sleep is a biological need for many physiological processes under primary neurobiological regulation that affects many physiological systems, so sleep is necessary for the body to repair and restore itself. At least when compared to the early morning hours, an increase in parasympathetic cardiac transition during non-rapid eye movement sleep 2 makes the nighttime a period of proportional protection from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) events. Sleep and sleep disturbances affect various components of human homeostasis, including the cardiovascular system.

Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives each year. Over three-quarters of CVD deaths take place in low and middle-income countries. In the Eastern Mediterranean Region, more than 1.3 million people died of CVD, which equals one-third of all deaths annually. Sleep disturbance is a common problem in cardiac patients. Cardiac surgery patients' perceptions of their sleep in the intensive care unit (ICU) indicate that it is inadequate.

Sleep disturbance occurs in 60 to 80% of patients in the first few days after heart surgery. One of the most common causes of sleep disturbance after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) is subsequent alterations in physiological parameters such as systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP), RR, and HR.