Abstract
AIM: To investigate the effect of increasing duration of family members' presence on sleep status in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) admitted to the cardiac care unit. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. METHODS: Ninety patients with ACS randomly assigned into two groups. No intervention was performed in control group. In the intervention group, the time of family members presence was changed from 1 h per day to 2 h per day from the second to the fourth day. Then, ST Mary's Hospital Sleep Questionnaire was completed by the patients every day during the study. RESULTS: The patients in the intervention group had statistically significantly better sleep status during the course of intervention compared to the control group. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: The increasing duration of family members' presence can improve the sleep quality and quantity of ACS patients.