ABSTRACT

Introduction and Purpose: Sleep disorders are one of the most common problems in hospitalized patients, and can lead to serious effects on patients' health and speed of recovery. This study aimed to investigate the effect of aromatherapy with lavender essential oilon the quality of sleep of cardiac patients candidate for angiography in the intensive care unit.

Materials and Methods: This clinical trial study was performed on 70 patients candidate for angiography in the cardiac intensive care unit of the Ali-Ibn-Abitaleb hospital of Rafsanjanin 2019.Patients entered the study according to the criteria of entry and exit and after obtaining written informed consent from them and they were randomly classified into two groups of intervention and control by classification by minimization by age and gender.The patients then completed the St. Mary's Hospital Sleep Questionnaire. In the intervention group, a cotton swab impregnated with 15 drops of lavender essential oil and then pinned to the patient's pillow.In the control group, a cotton swab impregnated with 15 drops of water and then pinned to the patient's pillow.The next morning, the mentioned questionnaire was completed again by the patients and the data were collected. The data were analyzed using SPSS 18 software, through performing paired t-test, the Chi-square test, the independent t-test, and Fisher's exact test, and p <0.05 was considered significant.

Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of demographic characteristics. The sleep quality of both groups was poor before the intervention, and there was no significant difference between the groups. After performing aromatherapy, the quality of sleep in the intervention group improved significantly compared to the control group. And the sleep quality scores of the two groups show a statistically significant difference (p <0.00001).

Conclusion: Aromatherapy with lavender essential oil, which is a non-invasive, easy, and low-cost technique with low side effects, improves patients' sleep quality, so this method can be used to increase patients' sleep quality.