Assessment of Sleep Quality and Sleep Hygiene among Nursing officers during COVID pandemic in a Tertiary Care Hospital in a Southern District of Karnataka, India

Abstract

Introduction: Nursing officers are one of the susceptible groups prone to have sleep disturbances, which may
not only influence their own health but also affect the nursing quality and treatment process. During COVID
Pandemic, because of high work demand, nurses were made to run more shifts than regular days which can be
quite stressful for them. Our study was conducted to assess the sleep quality and sleep hygiene among Nursing
officers during COVID pandemic andto determine the factors influencing the Sleep quality and Sleep Hygiene
Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from September 2021- October 2021 among nursing officers
of Kodagu district hospital attached to Kodagu Institute of Medical sciences. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index
questionnaire was used to assess the sleep quality, Epworth Sleepiness Scale was used to determine the presence
of tendency of daytime sleepiness and Sleep hygiene index was used to assess the sleep hygiene among the
respondents.
Results: Poor sleep quality was high(70.4%) among nursing officers. A significant association (p<0.05) of poor
sleep quality was found with 31-40 years age group, nuclear family, less than 10 years of work experience and
>15 nights shifts per month when logistic regression was applied. Poor sleep quality was high among the nursing
officers who were practicing poor sleep hygiene (79.16 %).The assessment of daytime sleepiness showed that
majority of the nursing officers (94%) were unlikely to be abnormally sleepy.
Conclusion: The prevalence of poor sleep quality was high among nurses which was done during COVID
pandemic. Poor sleep quality was associated age, type of family, years of work experience and nights shifts.
Recruitment of adequate number of nursing staff and scrupulously planned night shifts are needed to improve
the sleep health and well being of nurses which sequentially will result in better and efficient patient care.