Exploring the Association between Sleep Quality and Heart Rate Variability among Female Nurses

Hsiu-Chin Hsu, Hsiu-Fang Lee and Mei-Hsiang Lin
Additional contact information
Hsiu-Chin Hsu: Department of Graduate Institute of Health Care, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, and Department of Internal Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Tao-Yuan 333, Taiwan
Hsiu-Fang Lee: Department of Nursing, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Tao-Yuan 333, Taiwan
Mei-Hsiang Lin: School of Nursing, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei 112, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: The quality of nurses’ work has a direct effect on patient health, and poor sleep has been positively associated with nurses’ medical errors. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between quality of sleep and heart rate variability (HRV) among female nurses. A descriptive cross-sectional correlational study design was used in January 2014 to study female nurses ( n = 393) employed in a medical center in Taiwan. Data were obtained from several questionnaires. HRV was analyzed with five-minute recordings of heart rate signals obtained using a Heart Rater SA-3000P. Approximately 96% of the participants self-reported a poor quality of sleep. Compared to non-shift nurses, significant decreases were found in total power (TP) and low-frequency HRV among shift-work nurses. However, negative correlations were found between sleep quality and HRV, including total power, low frequency, and the low frequency/high frequency ratio ( r = ?0.425, p < 0.05; r = ?0.269, ?0.266, p < 0.05). In a stepwise multiple regression analysis, 23.1% of variance in quality of sleep can be explained by TP and heart rate. The sleep quality of female nurses was poor and this affected their autonomic nervous system, which can contribute unfavorable consequences for their health.

Keywords: nurses; sleep quality; heart rate variability; autonomic nervous activities; PSQI; HRV (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5551/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5551/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:11:p:5551-:d:560104

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().