Utility of a Wearable Tracker to Assess Sleep Quality in Nurses and Their Spouses: A Prospective Cohort Study

Sleep disturbances among nurses engaged in night duty and their spouses need to be improved to ensure their ability to provide care and perform daily tasks. Therefore, an objective investigation is needed to establish a sleep improvement strategy.

To investigate the utility of a sleep tracker to assess sleep quality in nurses and spouses.

Nurses (n = 30) and spouses (n = 30) wore a sleep tracker for 14 days to investigate sleep scores. Sleep quality and number of steps were evaluated by Fitbit. They responded to the Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. A multiple regression analysis was performed to identify the factors affecting sleep quality.

Factors affecting sleep scores in nurses were hypnotic medication, night duty, and steps, while those in spouses were mental instability, hypnotic medication, alcohol, night duty, and steps. Factors affecting the Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire in nurses were household chores, night duty, and steps, while those in spouses were hypnotic medication and steps.

The sleep quality of nurses was affected by household chores, hypnotic medication, night duty, and steps. Besides the factors of nurses, spouses were affected by mental instability and alcohol. Night duty affected negativity in both nurses and spouses. Steps exerted positive effects in both the sleep tracker and the Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire. The sleep tracker may be useful for identifying factors that improve sleep quality.