How do they do it?

I had the same experience when I was in hospital last year. I told anyone that would listen that it was sleep deprivation torture. Apart from the machines beeping I was on hourly observations, I wore earplugs but the nurse would remove them to take my temperature and drop them so no chance of a bit of hush after that. I like the way the staff offer to pull your curtain as if that shut out their loud voices.
Indinana Your return home will result in the sweetest sleep you can imagine. for you because I could not find a medal, which you deserve.

Hope you are home soon and resting in your own bed Mollie
Get well soon

I had a similar experience last year, that week was both the most painful and the most sleepless experience of my life. On the night I was admitted I must have managed to doze off only to be woken up by a nurse to complete an admission questionnaire. I looked at the clock and it was 3.25 am!

Hope you're home soon and feeling better Indinana

I did manage to drop off about 4.30 - sheer exhaustion allowed me to cope with the beeps and snoring at last! Then the meds trolley came round at 6.00, so here I am awake again.
Good point Anya, but in truth the majority of the time the staff were quiet - it was just this one time changing the bed for someone in a single room opposite our bay. And rather than actually close the door (how obvious?) they just pulled the curtains round. It could well be that the patient was hard of hearing. Being generous here
And I am a light sleeper, so nurses talking quietly at their station, only 5m away, is enough to keep me awake.

Sounds awful Indiana - I hope you put this in writing to the hospital after your discharge so that things that ought not disturb sleep, such as staff talking loudly, can be dealt with. Then other patients won't have to suffer as you have.

If I was in hospital I would be like you, Indinana, I have enough trouble dropping off and staying asleep in my own bed! Once on an overnight train journey from London to Aberdeen I was surrounded by passengers, mouth open and snoring loudly, I'm the same on a long haul flight - wide awake and, like you, wondering how they do it!
Hope you've managed a power nap or two since you last posted and don't feel too grim today and recover well once you get home.

Ditto your experience. I was in hospital over new year for five days and five very long sleepless nights. When I was nursing I was always told that sleep was a natural healer and everything possible was done to ensure patients (on a 30 bedded Nightingale ward, with wooden floor boards) got a decent nights sleep, not necessarily using sleeping tablets either. This meant, for example, talking very quietly when talking was necessary, certainly no pushing of trolleys, shoes had to be soft soled etc. I do understand that machinery these days has alarms on, and a good job too, however it would help if they were not left continually ringing for up to ten minutes, in my experience, before the nursing staff I saw chatting, with cups, in hand answered them. And before any one mentions staff shortages, on a typical nights I would have one care assistant with me all night, and one student or trained nurse till midnight, another student or trained nurse came on at six to help with the morning procedures.

You poor thing! That sounds awful. I hope you have a wonderful deep sleep when you're back home.

Sorry that should read 'I'm in the one section.....'

Oh and add to all this the fact that in the one section of the ward that is immediately opposite the nurses' station, so throughout the night staff are talking to each other there.
And the beeping has just started up again