The Impact of Shift Work on Sleep Quality Among Nurses

Background: Shift work is common among nurses, and it is known to be a workplace hazard as it may cause poor sleep quality, which can impact adversely on the health and safety of nurses and their patients.

Aims: To explore factors that contribute to poor sleep quality in shift working nurses (SWNs) compared with non-shift working nurses (NSWNs) and to assess the awareness of support from occupational health.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of nurses at a National Health Service (NHS) foundation trust, February to March 2016. Data were collected via an online questionnaire. Sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

Results: Eight hundred and eighty-eight nurses participated; the response rate was 34%. The prevalence of poor sleep quality was 78% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.748-0.813) in the SWNs, compared with 59% (95% CI 0.503-0.678) in the NSWNs. There was a mean sleep quality score difference of 1.58 between the SWNs and the NSWNs, which was statistically significant, P < 0.001 (95% CI 0.913-2.246). Undertaking shift work was the only significant association with poor sleep quality when controlling for the other variables of age, gender and number of years worked, odds ratio 0.410, P < 0.001 (95% CI 0.265-0.634).

Conclusions: There was a high prevalence of poor sleep quality in both SWNs and NSWNs. This was persistent despite few nurses working in rotating shifts or shifts with short recovery time.