Washington, Feb. 5 (Reuters): Patients who have complained they cannot get any rest in noisy hospitals were vindicated yesterday with a report confirming that the racket on hospital wards can be as loud as a rock concert.

Nurses who volunteered to sleep in hospital rooms found out that rest can be almost impossible — especially during staff shift changes.

“We wanted to experience the patients’ perspective, so we became patients for one night,” said Cheryl Cmiel of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota, who helped lead the study.

“We got an earful.”

Noise readings reached as high as 113 decibels — about as much noise as a rock concert or chain saw makes, Cmiel and colleagues report in the February issue of American Journal of Nursing.

The worst ruckus came at the morning shift change, around 7 am, although the 11 pm shift change also was noisy. This is obviously not good, Cmiel said.

“Adequate sleep is important to the healing process, and sleeping in the hospital is notoriously difficult,” she said in a statement.