Nursing Work Schedules, Specialties, Sleep Hygiene, and the Impact on Sleep Health

Sleep is an important determinant of health and well-being. Poor sleep among nurses is associated with medical errors, poor decision-making, and decreased patient safety. National research priorities have underscored the need to understand the impact of nursing job characteristics on sleep health and mitigation strategies.

We aimed to test whether sleep hygiene behaviors moderated the association between job characteristics and sleep health among nurses.

A cross-sectional analysis was conducted on data from the Nurses' Health Study 3 (N = 1272). Logistic regression analysis tested the modifying effect of sleep hygiene behaviors when examining the association between job characteristics and sleep health among nurses practicing in various care settings and specialties.

Sleep hygiene behaviors were associated with increased odds of healthy sleep on workdays and work-free days; however, sleep hygiene did not moderate associations between job characteristics and sleep health. Working 12-hour or longer shifts was not associated with decreased odds of healthy sleep compared with working <12-hour shifts on workdays or work-free days. Working in schools and critical care was associated with 50% or higher odds of unhealthy sleep compared with working in the operating room and oncology on work-free days.

Findings suggest sleep hygiene behaviors cannot fully mitigate the effect of job characteristics on sleep health. Study results indicate sleep health may vary by nursing care setting and specialties. Future research should consider factors that may impact sleep health such as short staffing, commuting during work, and time off between shifts.