Sleep quality of Iranian nurses: A nationwide and cross-sectional study

Introduction: Nurses’ sleep quality is an important issue associated with patient care quality. The present study evaluated the sleep quality of Iranian nurses. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated 920 nurses working in hospitals in 6 cities in Iran, who were selected using a random multi-stage sampling method. The nurses filled out demographic information questionnaire and Pittsburgh sleep quality index. We analyzed the data using descriptive statistics, t-test, Chi-square test, multiple linear regression analysis, and SPSS 24.  Results: The total sleep quality score was 7.86 ± 3.58 out of 21. 71.73% of the nurses had poor sleep quality. The most common problems were sleep disturbance and sleep efficiency. Sleep quality was positively correlated with education level and negatively correlated with having a second job (P 0.05). Other occupational and demographic variables had no statistically significant relationship with sleep quality (P 0.05). Shift work and work in two hospitals were factors predicting a lower quality of nurses’ sleep. Conclusion: We concluded that poor sleep quality is a significant health issue for Iranian nurses. The main reasons for their low sleep quality are low sleep efficiency and high sleep disturbances.