White noise improved reported sleep scores in a small intensive care trial
Patients receiving overnight white noise reported greater improvements in sleep scores than those receiving routine care, but the abstract does not report the size of the differences.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
In this randomized trial, patients in intensive care who received white noise had greater improvements in reported sleep quality than patients receiving routine care. The result concerns questionnaire scores in a hospital setting. It does not establish whether white noise improves objectively measured sleep, recovery, or sleep outside intensive care.
The abstract provides no numerical between-group score differences or confidence intervals. Subjective sleep scores alone do not establish better recovery.
What researchers found
Total sleep and sleep disturbance scores
On the Verran and Snyder-Halpern Sleep Scale, reductions were greater with white noise than with routine care on days 1, 3 and 5.
What the trial measured
Sleep was assessed with a questionnaire at baseline and after the intervention began. Researchers compared changes between patients assigned to white noise and those assigned to routine care without it.
How to read the changes
The authors describe an improvement in subjective sleep quality. However, statistical significance alone does not show how noticeable the score changes were, and the abstract supplies no numerical differences between groups.
The original publication
The effectiveness of white noise for sleep quality in patients admitted to the intensive care unit: a randomized controlled trial.
Nien YC, Weng SF, Chou PL
Intensive Crit Care Nurs · 2026
- PubMed ID
- 41761732
- Record checked
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