Morning-evening type and burnout level as factors influencing sleep quality of shift nurses: a questionnaire study

To assess the relationship between sleep quality and demographic variables, morning-evening type, and burnout in nurses who work shift.

We carried out a cross-sectional self-administered study with forced choice and open-ended structured questionnaires - Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Morningness-eveningness Questionnaire, and Maslach Burnout Inventory. The study was carried out at Gazi University Medicine Faculty Hospital of Ankara on 524 invited nurses from July to September 2008, with a response rate of 89.94% (n=483). Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to determine the risk factors of poor sleep quality.

Most socio-demographic variables did not affect sleep quality. Participants with poor sleep quality had quite high burnout levels. Most nurses who belonged to a type that is neither morning nor evening had poor sleep quality. Nurses who experienced an incident worsening their sleep patterns (P<0.001) and needlestick or sharp object injuries (P=0.010) in the last month had poor sleep quality. The subjective sleep quality and sleep latency points of evening types within created models for the effect of burnout dimensions were high.

Nurses working consistently either in the morning or at night had better sleep quality than those working rotating shifts. Further studies are still needed to develop interventions that improve sleep quality and decrease burnout in nurses working shifts.