Effect of Hybrid Aromatherapy on Sleep Quality of Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome Admitted to Cardiac Care Unit

Background and objective: Sleep disorder and reduced rest during admission to hospital is a stimulating factor of heart attacks in coronary artery disease patients. There are different ways to improve sleep quality. Method: Aromatherapy is one of the methods used to improve sleep quality. This study determines the effects of hybrid aromatherapy on sleep quality of patients with ACS admitted to CCU. This clinical trial was conducted in 2016 on 60 patients diagnosed with ACS and admitted to CCU of the 22 Bahman Hospital, Gonabad. The patients were recruited by using convenient sampling and assigned randomly to control and experiment groups. Results: The experimental group received aromatherapy with a combination of essential oils of lavender, Matricaria recutita and neroli (6:2:0.5) for three consecutive nights; the control group received no intervention. At the beginning and the end of the study, visual VSH scale was filled out to assess sleep quality. The collected data was analyzed by using SPSS20, independent t-tests, Chi-square test and exact Fisher test (p 0.05). Conclusion: There was a significant difference in mean score of post-interventional and pre-interventional sleep quality, effectiveness and sleep supplementation (p<0.001). The mean score of sleep quality and sleep supplementation increased in the control group and decreased in the experiment group, while the mean score of sleep effectiveness decreased in the control group and increased in the experiment group. The results showed that hybrid aromatherapy as a cost effective and uncomplicated method can improve sleep quality of patients with ACS admitted to CCU.