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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 2, 2025

Collecting Sleep, Circadian, Fatigue, and Performance Data in Complex Operational Environments
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Nurses and Night Shifts: Poor Sleep Quality Exacerbates Psychomotor Performance.

Marco Di Muzio1, Giulia Diella1, Emanuele Di Simone2

  • 1Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.

Frontiers in Neuroscience
|November 6, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Night shifts impair nurses' cognitive performance and increase sleepiness and tiredness. Poor sleep quality, not age or experience, negatively impacts adaptation to shift work, highlighting a risk for healthcare professionals.

Keywords:
poor sleep qualitypsychomotor performanceshift worksleepinesssustained attention

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Area of Science:

  • Occupational Health
  • Sleep Medicine
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

  • Shift work is prevalent among European healthcare employees (40%).
  • Night shifts disrupt sleep/wake rhythms, potentially impairing cognitive function in nurses.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of night shifts on psychomotor performance, sleepiness, and tiredness in nurses.
  • To determine if sleep quality, sex, age, or job tenure influence adaptation to shift work.

Main Methods:

  • Eighty-six nurses on 8-h rotating shifts were assessed post-morning, afternoon, and night shifts.
  • Evaluated sleepiness (Karolinska Sleepiness Scale), tiredness (Tiredness Symptoms Scale), and cognitive performance (Psychomotor Vigilance Task - PVT).
  • Assessed sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).

Main Results:

  • Sleepiness and tiredness were significantly higher after night shifts.
  • Attentional performance on the PVT was reduced following night shifts.
  • Poor sleep quality (PSQI > 5) correlated with decreased PVT performance; sex, age, and years on the job did not significantly impact performance.

Conclusions:

  • Night shifts negatively affect nurses' psychomotor performance, sleepiness, and tiredness.
  • Poor sleep quality is a key factor in impaired adaptation to night shift work among nurses.
  • PSQI is a valuable tool for assessing shift workers' sleep quality and identifying those struggling with night shifts.