Purpose: This study was done to examine the sleep pattern of ICU patients, as well as characteristics of, and factors related to sleep disturbances, and state anxiety. It was done to provide the basic data fur effective nursing interventions to improve quality of sleep for these patients. Methods: The participants were 104 patients who were admitted to the surgical ICU in a hospital in Seoul. To measure sleep patterns, the Verran and Snyder-Halpern Sleep Scale and the Sleeping Scale developed by Oh et al.(1998) were used. Characteristics of sleep disturbances were measured using the Sleep characteristics scale developed by Park(1999). To measure factors related to sleep disturbances, thirty items developed by Oh(1998) were used. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the sleep patterns according to the general characteristics of the patients. The characteristics of sleep disturbances showed statistically significant differences in general and specific characteristics of sleep patterns but there was no statistically significant difference according to the general characteristics of the patients. There were significant negative correlations between factors related to sleep disturbances and general and specific characteristics of sleep patterns but there were no statistically significant difference according to the general characteristics of the patients. Conclusion: The results showed that the majority of patients staying in the surgical ICU experienced sleep disturbances and that the physical factor was the major factor of sleep disturbances.