The Effect of Aromatherapy with Damask Rose and Blindfold on Sleep Quality of Patients Admitted to Cardiac Critical Care Units

Sleep is one of the physiological needs of patients; however, sleep disorders are prevalent among patients hospitalized in cardiac care units. This study aimed to compare the effect of Damask rose aromatherapy and blindfold on sleep quality of patients hospitalized in cardiac care units.
Material & In this randomized clinical trial, 60 patients who met the inclusion criteria were selected conveniently and randomly assigned into Damask rose aromatherapy and blindfold groups using blocked randomization. In addition to the routine care, interventions were implemented for three subsequent nights from 22:00 to 6:00 A.M. In both groups and the patients’ sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, before and after the three nights. Data was analyzed using Chi-square, independent t, Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests using SPSS-PC (v. 11.5).
The overall sleep quality significantly improved after the intervention in both Damask rose aromatherapy (P = 0.001) and blindfold groups (P = 0.001). Although improvement of sleep quality was higher in blindfold group (P = 0.005).
Both Damask rose aromatherapy and blindfold could improve the sleep quality of patients hospitalized in the cardiac care unit, though blindfold was more effective. Therefore, according to patient’s preference, one of these methods might be used to improve the sleep quality.