Relationship between work stress and sleep quality among nursing staff at a Category II-1 hospital in Cajamarca, March 2025

Introduction: Stress levels are associated with physiological changes, including sleep disorders and sleep quality. Objective: To explore the relationship between work-related stress levels and sleep quality in nursing professionals; and to determine the prevalence and level of work-related stress and sleep quality among nursing professionals. Methods: This was a basic study with a quantitative approach and a non-experimental design, with analytical and cross-sectional features, probability and simple random sampling. The sample included 115 nurses who completed a questionnaire composed of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Expanded Nursing Stress Scale (ENSS), with Cronbach's alphas of 0.93 and 0.92, respectively. Results: There was a significant association between the two variables (p = 0.018) with a prevalence ratio of 1.74. No participant showed high levels of stress; however, 81.74% (94) of the surveyed employees had low stress levels and 18.26% had moderate stress levels. 56.52% (65) of the participants reported poor sleep quality and 43.48% reported good sleep quality. Only employment status was significantly associated with sleep quality (p= 0.027). Salaried employees reported better sleep quality (71.1%) than contract employees (49.4%). Conclusion: The study found a significant association between job stress and sleep quality among nurses.