Background : There are a few studies to assess nurses’ sleep quality and sleepiness in the Iranian context. This study thus was carried out to examine the prevalence of sleepiness and sleep quality among nurses in South East of Iran.

  Subjects and methods : The study applied a descriptive, explorative design.252 nurses randomly selected from Kerman University Hospitals during winter 2009. Using two questionnaires Epworth Sleepiness Scale [ESS] and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) prevalence of sleepiness and sleep quality of sample was examined.

  Results : The prevalence of sleepiness was 45.6%. Daytime sleepiness correlated with job experience (p= 0.028), education (p= 0.036). 84.5% of the participants reported that they have poor sleep quality. The PSQI component scores (mean ± SD) widely ranged . The highest mean scores belonged to sleep latency (1.8 ± 0.9) and the lowest belonged to hypnotic medication use (0.54 ± 0.97). However, there was no significant difference between gender, marriage status, education, job experience, and sleep quality. Pearson correlation coefficient showed a significant association between sleep quality and sleepiness (p=0.014) among participants. According to Binary logistic regression results, the risk of sleepiness among participants with poor sleep quality was 2.58 times more than that among those who had good sleep quality.

  Conclusions : The results indicate almost high prevalence of poor sleep quality and sleepiness among Iranian nurses. Therefore nurse managers and policymakers need to change the work organizational culture so that nurses, who work long hours, have sufficient time to sleep.