Sleep pattern in hospital nurses due to shift work

Background: Shift work is highly prevalent in industrialized societies. Work hours that displace sleep to the daytime and work to the night time will interfere with the circadian and homeostatic regulation of sleep. Such work hours has pronounced negative effects on sleep, subjective and physiological sleepiness, performance, accident risk as well as on health outcomes.Work hours that displace sleep to the daytime and work to the nighttime will interfere with the circadian and homeostatic regulation of sleep.Aim and Objective: To study and compare the sleep pattern in night shift working nurses and day shift working nurses and to evaluate the various shift related sleep disorders in night shift working nurses.Materials and Methods:Thirty female nurses aged 25-35 years with an average body mass index participated in the current study after ethical clearance.With regard to subjective and objective evaluation of day time sleepiness,the Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) consisting of questionnaires were given prior to both day and night shift nurses. Eight channel physiopac was used to assess the sleep pattern.Results:The parameters were analysed statistically by using independent 't' test. There was no significant difference in age,body mass index,years employed in nursing between day and night shift nurses.But there was a significant difference in mean and standard deviation of sleep efficiency,sleep onset latency.The pattern of day time sleep of night shift nurses showed significantly lower sleep latency and also had greater proportions of stage 2 and 3 respectively.The sleep efficiency was significantly more in day shift nurses.Conclusion:Misalignment between internal circadian physiology and the required work schedule is thought to be a primary cause of shift work schedule induced sleepiness and