TY - JOUR T1 - To sleep: perchance to ditch the ventilator JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.00624-2018 VL - 51 IS - 4 SP - 1800624 AU - Magdy Younes Y1 - 2018/04/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/51/4/1800624.abstract N2 - An adequate quality and quantity of sleep are essential for good health [1, 2]. Sleep loss impairs the function of virtually all systems required to cope with the challenges of critical illness and the intensive care unit (ICU) environment, including respiratory muscle strength [3], neuroendocrine and metabolic function [4–6], immune function [7, 8], and cardiovascular responses [9], and is an important risk factor for psychiatric disorders [10], delirium [11] and death [12].Sleep in the ICU has now been shown to delay weaning. This calls for expedited studies to determine mechanisms of disrupted sleep and methods to avoid abnormal EEG patterns during sleep and wakefulness, which seem to underlie weaning difficulty http://ow.ly/haAC30jvVbD ER -