Healthcare Professionals Network discusses the link between sleep and suicide and addresses how to talk to patients about both.

Simply taking a look at patients who look like they’re sleeping, then assuming they are sleeping is a useless assessment. Mahoney said it is important to teach nurses how important sleep is and instruct them to tell patients:

“I want you to know that your sleep really matters to us! Sleep is as important as food and air and water. So let’s talk about how you slept last night. Did you feel like you slept as well as you could of? Did you wake up periodically? Did you lay in bed worrying about things? Did you have a nightmare?” said Mahoney. So the assessment has to probe and educate the patient, too, that sleep is important.