The Impact of Shift Work on Sleep Quality and Academic Performance among Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Background: The circadian rhythm may be disturbed and the sleep quality decreased among nursing students who are trained in fields with shift work. Although nursing students’ poor sleep quality has been well documented, the relationship between their academic performance and this condition is controversial.

Aim: The focus of this study was to determine sleep quality among Nursing Students who work in shifts, and its correlation with academic performance.

Methods: Design a quantitative descriptive and cross-sectional design was used. Three hundred and five nursing students were involved in this research.

Tool: Sleep quality was evaluated with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and academic performance was determined by students self-reporting grade point average (GPA).

Result: The majority of nursing students (89.2%) suffered from poor sleep quality (mean PSQI = 9.11 ± 3.04), most frequently associated with difficulty falling asleep, sleep disturbances and low sleep efficiency. Nevertheless, a significant number still managed to achieve high levels of academic outcomes and sleep quality was not predicted academic performance since it poorly correlated with GPA (r = −0.048, p = 0.410).

Conclusion: Although the rate of poor sleeps quality was high in the nursing students, it showed no significant relationship with academic performance. Nevertheless, the high prevalence of sleep problems is a cause for concern because these have been shown to impact physical health, cognitive performance, psychological well-being and patient safety.

Recommendation: It is suggested that nursing schools should provide interventions like sleep hygiene counseling, workload strategy and supportive schedule to manage the students during clinical placement. Longitudinal studies with objective sleep measures may be better suited to determining the long-term impact of these shift work related sleep difficulties on academic and clinical performance.