Abstract: Objective  To observe the improvement effect of external counterpulsation treatment on sleep disturbance in patients with coronary heart disease through mixed research methods.Methods  In quantitative study,  totally 80 patients diagnosed with coronary heart disease(CHD) with sleep disorder were randomly divided into control group and experimental group.The control group was given cardiology routine nursing and healthy sleep method,  and the intervention group was given external counterpulsation treatment on this basis.Pittsburgh Sleep Scale was used to evaluate the sleep disorder of the patients before and after the treatment.The qualitative study randomly selected 17 patients from two groups for semistructured interview. The score of Pittsburgh Sleep Scale and patients' feelings before and after the treatment were compared between the two groups.Results  After treatment,  there was statistically  significant difference between control group and experimental group in the scores and total scores of other factors except  the score of sleep disorder(P<0.05).The external counterpulsation treatment  could help patients shorten the time to fall asleep,  improve the sleep efficiency,  reduce the waking situation at night,  improve daytime sleepiness,  reduce the frequency of hypnotic drugs, and  improve the sleep disorder of patients with CHD.Conclusion  The  external counterpulsation  can improve sleep disturbance in patients with CHD,  and it also can be used in cardiac rehabilitation  of clinical in the future.

Key words: coronary , disease；sleep disorders;counterpulsation