Sleep of Nurses: A Comprehensive Scoping Review

To map the extent, range and nature of studies that examine sleep of nurses and identify how sleep has been examined in relation to the different aspects of nurses' health and nursing work and practice.

A scoping review.

A search of five electronic databases including MEDLINE, Embase, EMcare, PsycINFO (using the Ovid platform) and Scopus was undertaken in May 2023 to identify primary studies that examined nurses' sleep.

This review was undertaken in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews and reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) Checklist.

This review included 1040 studies from a wide range of countries. Most studies were observational in design and examined nurses working in the acute care sector. Studies were mostly descriptive (32%) or discussed sleep as a workforce issue (21%) or lifestyle behaviour that is important for the health of nurses working clinically (27%). A range of different sleep parameters were examined, with sleep quality the focus of most studies, especially in relation to well-being.

There has been an exponential increase in the number of studies that examine nurses' sleep. Efforts to examine the sleep of nurses are beginning to align with contemporary understandings and methodological approaches to examining sleep. However, this field of research could benefit from better consistency in the definition and reporting of sleep, prioritising objective measures of sleep and improving understanding of the relative and combined importance of different dimensions of sleep.

This review provides a comprehensive overview of studies that examine nurses' sleep. Findings highlight areas of growing interest, areas in need of further research and methodological considerations to strengthen research in this field.

No patient or public contribution. REGISTRATION DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/RZC4M.