Prevalence and effects of sleep disorders among shift-working nurse

Introduction: Sleep is one of the basic and physiologic needs of humans which has impressive effects on the physical and mental health of human. According to the need for the permanent presence of nurses in the hospitals, they often suffer from shift-working effects such as sleep disorders. Considering the high sensitivity of nursing jobs, the aims of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and consequence of sleep disorders in shift-working nurses. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study is conducted on all of the nurses employing in hospitals of Larestan City in South of Iran at 2017. After screening based on inclusion criteria, 100 nurses were selected. To evaluate of prevalence and consequence of sleep disorders in nurses, the Pittsburgh sleep quality index, Epworth sleep quality index, and insomnia severity index were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS Version 16. Results: The results showed the mean score of sleep quality index was 6.52 ± 4.23, and according to this index, 56% of studied nurses are in hazard situation. In all of the nurses, sings of insomnia during routine works was observed, so that 78.5% were sleepy, 16.5% were very sleepy, and 5% were severe sleepy. With increasing the rate of night shift-working per week, the severity of insomnia in nurses was increased too (R 2 = 0.78). Sleep disorders in surgical section nurses were higher than nurses in other section of the hospitals (P < 0.05). Conclusions: A high percentage of nurses employed in different section of hospitals have poor sleep quality and increase the rate of night shift working per week plays a major role in decreasing their sleep quality. Regarding the adverse effects due to poor sleep quality on health status and quality of job performance of nurses, it is necessary adjust the shift works of nurses to improve the sleep quality of nurses night shift-working employed in different section of hospitals.