sleep quality and sleepiness: a comparison between nurses with and without shift work, and university employees

background: this study compared the sleep quality and sleepiness in day workers and shift workers. sleep quality and sleepiness in staff nurses were significantly different than employees . shift work is an important factor influencing the sleep quality and sleepiness of nurses. the aim of the present research was to compare three groups: (1) nurses with shiftwork; (2) nurses without shiftwork as control group for evaluate the effects of shiftwork; and (3) regular non-shift employees who were not nurses as control group for nursing job and evaluate the effect of workplace and nature of nursing job (employees of kerman university of medical sciences) with regard to their sleep quality, and to find the factors determining their sleep quality. methods: the present study was cross-sectional in design and was carried out in 2011. the research participants were 326 nurses (without shift work and with shift work) and employees of kmu university hospitals. data in this study were gathered via the pittsburgh sleep quality index and epworth sleepiness scale. results: 91.2% of nurses and 79.6% of employees had poor sleep quality. the sleep quality (p=0.013) and sleepiness (p=0.005) of hospital nurses (without shift work and with shift work) were significantly different from that of the university employees. however, there was not a significant difference between the nurses without shift work and nurses with shift work in terms of sleep quality (p =0.87) and sleepiness (p=0.41). conclusions: job stress, daily average hours of sleep, and shift work are among the influencing factors causing sleepiness and poor sleep quality.