The features which emerge from this survey are that the
typical intensive care patient has poor recollection of his
experience. True, he could back calculate the time he had
spent in the unit, but retrograde amnesia in nearly 50%,
hazy recollection of events in the ICU and a sense of confusion
(often unappreciated by nursing staff) makes the
experience of a survivor of the ICU fragmentary. This is
not apparently related to the preadmission personality,
but more to his serious illness, analgesic and sedative
drugs - particularly in patients on IPPV - and lack of
sleep. About a quarter of Hewitt's patients were worried
by difficulty in resting or sleeping and our findings are not
dissimilar. Prominent among causes of difficulty is the
inability to be comfortable. Patients in an ICU are likely
to be placed in a "crucifixion" position with an infusion
of some kind in one arm and a sphygmomanometer cuff
or arterial line strapped to the other. It is well nigh impossible
for a patient immediately after major surgery to
wriggle into the comfortable foetal position so many of
us adopt for sleep. Those nursed in a sitting position often slip down the bed to the chagrin of nurses and doctors but
perhaps to their own greater comfort.