Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
5. Uluslararası 6. Ulusal Onkoloji Hemşireliği Kongresi, Ankara, Türkiye, 22 - 24 Kasım 2023, ss.172-173
Cancer patients experience insomnia more often than healthy individuals. The nature of the cancer disease, the methods used for its diagnosis, its treatment, and the severe symptoms associated with the treatment increase the likelihood of insomnia in these patients. According to clinical research, many cancer patients who complain of insomnia are also worried about the consequences of insomnia. The source of these concerns is dysfunctional beliefs related to sleep. Many cancer patients fear the progression of cancer and the weakening of their immune systems due to insomnia, insufficient or poor quality sleep. In fact, there are medically verified reasons behind these beliefs of the patients. However, these beliefs cause more anxiety in cancer patients, paving the way for a vicious cycle of sleep problems. Therefore, these beliefs are viewed as “dysfunctional.” Despite all this, sufficient research is not conducted in clinics on dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs, and this aspect of the insomnia symptom is not addressed. Very few studies have been conducted in the world on the dysfunctional sleep beliefs of cancer patients and the effects of these beliefs. As far as we know, there is no study on this subject in Turkey. However, the treatment of cancer patients is now considered as a multidimensional process. One of the most important components of this process is to clearly state the problem. In addition to controlling physical conditions such as heat, light, and noise that may affect the sleep of cancer patients, nurses should also evaluate and eliminate conditions that prevent the individual from sleeping, such as anxiety. In addition, it is clearly stated in the literature that much more research is needed to understand whether cognitive and behavioral therapy methods in the treatment of sleep-related dysfunctional beliefs are effective enough. The aim of this review is to draw attention to dysfunctional sleep beliefs in cancer patients and to lay the groundwork for studies to be conducted on this subject in clinics.