I'm very junior and UK based so I can only speak on my experience...

No, there is no lack of understanding about the importance of promoting sleep. To suggest that somehow medical professionals haven't got round to working out that there are benefits to having a good sleep is, to be frank, completely ridiculous and quite insulting.

A very specific example would be the importance of sleep in relation to delirium in elderly patients. This is taken very seriously.

In a wider sense, hospital staff will try to establish a reasonable environment for sleep. There is a need to be realistic though, and accept that (for many many reason not readily apparent to the lay person) it just isn't always possible to remove all the factors that disturb sleep.

Most patients on a ward are in multi patient bays. If a patient is unwell medical staff will probably have to; talk out loud, turn on a light, move some kit around, walk in/out of the bay... and so on. This would certainly wake me up. There's just very little can be done about it. Clinical need top trumps comfort.

There will of course be room for improvement, and some staff will be forgetful of the need to be mindful of quiet hours (it's very easy to forget it's 'night time' when your brain is in 'at work' mode).

So, a more balanced summary would be: "Medical professionals try to promote a good sleeping environment, but the very nature of a hospital makes this a challenge. However, there is always room for improvement and many local issues can be solved via improved patient-staff communication". Doesn't make for such a clickbaity whinge blog though when you phrase it this way.

I am in a similar position, and the ... outright condescension is unbelievable.

The worst doctor is unbelievably educated in the US. They have had to go through a very difficult pre-med undergrad, a competitive process to get accepted to medical school (which is really tough), survive a residency, and then have continuing education requirements.

And then a bunch of assholes here are like, "don't they know that patients have to sleep???"

Of course the f--king know that. I bet that same worst doctor knows more about sleep than 90% of the internet experts on this thread.

I mean, do people heard even realize that you're not supposed to be in the hospital? It's the hospital. It's for emergent medical care, and you should leave as soon as possible. Sleep is the least of your problems, vs say, MRSA.

Proper sleep is very low on the totem pole of things to manage when someone is in the hospital.

I'm almost always more worried about your vitals, your lab work, your physical assessment, etc. than the amount of sleep you are getting.

Patients need sleep, but a week of sleep deprivation isn't likely to kill you or leave permanent effects.

Something emergent can develop while you're unaware of it in your sleep.

Left toes are tingling? You're probably not going to notice that in your sleep. However, that could be a sign of poor circulation and potentially serious complications if not further examined and addressed.

I don't know how you can legitimately think this question is even worth asking? What do you think hospital staff do all day, deliberately try to ignore the obvious and torture the patient as much as possible?

In my experience, I don't spend more than a few days in the hospital, and when I do spend my time there, my whole life is turned upside down regardless of how much sleep I'm getting.