Being hospitalized can make you want to cover your ears with your hands all day and night—with intercoms buzzing, medical equipment beeping, doctors and nurses talking and doors slamming, it’s hard to hear yourself think, let alone rest.

You know that a hospital is going to be loud—but can you guess exactly how loud? For example, do you think that the decibel level gets as high as a dishwasher…an alarm clock…or a lawnmower?

A new study reveals the answer—and I think that the findings will surprise you…

NOISY DAYS & NIGHTS

Researchers were interested to see whether the noise levels in hospital patients’ rooms fell under the 30-decibel (dB) maximum that’s recommended by the World Health Organization—and how the noise affected patients’ sleep. So they installed sound level monitors in approximately 100 regular (not intensive care) hospital rooms at The University of Chicago Medical Center for about a year.

Meanwhile, they fitted approximately 100 hospitalized male and female patients over age 50 who were in these rooms with special wrist monitors to measure their sleep duration. The participants had no known sleep disorders or cognitive impairment, and the average length of their hospital stays was three to five days. Researchers also gave the patients questionnaires to get an idea of their typical sleep quality outside the hospital. The findings, which were reported this past January in Archives of Internal Medicine, were alarming…

  • Daytime noise levels were, on average, 48 dB (roughly the equivalent of a dishwasher being on), which is well over the 30-dB recommended maximum. And at times, the noise even reached a peak level of 80 dB (roughly the equivalent of a lawnmower) .
  • Relatively speaking, rooms were quieter at night—from 11 pm to 7 am—but they still clocked in at, on average, 38 dB (roughly the equivalent of rainfall), which is still over the 30-dB recommended maximum. And the rooms were sometimes as loud as 70 dB (roughly the equivalent of an alarm clock) .
  • Patients paid the price: More than 42% reported nightly sleep disruptions due to noise. On average, according to wrist monitors, patients slept 68 minutes less in the hospital than at home. The most commonly reported sources of sleep-robbing noise were staff conversations (65%), roommates (54%), alarms (42%), intercoms (39%) and pagers (38%).

TURN DOWN THE VOLUME!

To learn more about how room noise hurts hospital patients, I called study coauthor Vineet Arora, MD, an associate professor of medicine at The University of Chicago Medical Center.

Excessive noise in a hospital room is not just bothersome but dangerous, Dr. Arora said, because, as the study found, it limits sleep…and sleep loss is linked with higher blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, impaired wound healing, impaired short-term memory and depression- or anxiety-like symptoms—all of which can complicate and potentially prolong a hospital stay.

What can you do about the problem if you or a loved one lands in the hospital? Speak up, Dr. Arora advises. Ask hospital personnel to close the door when they leave the room and to keep their voices down in the hallways. (Of course, that might not work, but it never hurts to ask—especially if you ask to speak with the head nurse!) If you have any beeping monitors in your room, ask whether the sound can safely be turned off for the night—sometimes this is possible. Use the call button near the bed to promptly alert staff when alarms go off or machines suddenly start beeping (such as when intravenous lines require replacement). Otherwise, these machines may keep beeping and disrupting your sleep for a long time. You might want to bring noise-canceling headphones or earplugs to isolate you from the other types of noises caused by roommates, intercoms and pagers.

During the day, keep blinds open to let sunshine in, because when your body is exposed to light during the day, it regulates your circadian rhythms, which helps you sleep better. If you’re ambulatory, take a walk around the halls or grounds, since exercise can help you sleep better at night.