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Overnight noise in hospitals can negatively affect child and parent sleep, but sleep has not been reliably and objectively measured in a general pediatric ward. Researchers in England used actigraphy (by motion-detecting watch) to measure duration and quality of sleep for 40 children 3 to 16 years of age and 16 cosleeping mothers for 1 to 5 nights in a children's hospital inpatient ward and in their homes. The researchers also measured overnight noise levels in both settings.
Average total sleep time in the hospital, compared with at home, was 63 minutes less for children (7.4 vs. 8.5 hours) and 73 minutes less for parents (6.4 vs 7.6 hours). Sleep efficiency (percent of minutes spent sleeping between sleep onset and morning wakening) also w…