Sleep deprivation among patients in ICU is a prominent problem in
             health care today. This could lead to further physiological and
             psychological problems such as delirium, in extreme cases. The cause of
             this is the stress associated with the critical conditions necessitating
             admission to the intensive care unit (Roberts, 2000). A further problem
             associated with this is that health care workers at times misdiagnose and
             misperceive the condition as less dangerous than is in fact the case. It
             is therefore clear that the problem of sleep deprivation needs to be
             analyzed for its nature and its causes. There is a lack of such analysis,
             mainly as a result of advanced technology taking priority over the
             functionality of the patients themselves (Johnson 2000). The human element
             is thus neglected in favor of treating the illness as an isolated problem
             (Roberts, 2000). Nursing models such as those created by Neuman, Roy and
             Johnson can be useful in bringing back the concept of the whole person to
             ICU patients experience sleep disruptions on average about every 20
             minutes during a 24-hour day (Johnson, 2000). These disruptions come in
             the form of observations to ensure the physical stability of the patient.
             Another factor is the isolation from the natural day-night cycle as a
             result of ICUs constructed without any windows. If lights are always on at
             a consistent intensity, this furthermore disrupts the sleeping pattern and
             aggravates the inability of patients to reach the deepest stage of sleep.
             These factors lead to severe sleep deprivation, which may complicate to
             Stress-related sleep deprivation in the ICU can affect memory,
             concept formation, reasoning and executive function (Johnson, 2000). The
             fear already present as a result of the need for intensive care results in
             sleep deprivation, which aggravates disorientation, agitation, and possibly
             delirium. In order to...