Durma-se com um barulho destes: acústica e ambiente terapêutico

Abstract

The most primitive of uses for the built environment, sleep is tremendously important to one's health. An instinctive act that is obviously regenerating, we know it can be upset by both health and environmental conditions - though it's actual mechanisms still cause much controversy. In healthcare facilities, noise is a much bigger problem than either architects or doctors in general imagine. Both design and behavior affect the quality of the environment and of therefore, sleep. The therapeutic environment proposition suggests we can do better than merely"not harm" and actually create supportive environments that improve patient outcomes and staff productivity. Consequently, we must redefine functionality. The exercise proposed here is one of studying a problem from two complementary viewpoints, thus the choice of one aspect of the built environment and one of its uses: acoustics and sleep. The article lays out the evidence and contributes a better understanding of the real value of environmental acoustic quality and good sleep, and describes what would be good place for sleep.