Breathe to Better Sleep: Effect of Mindfulness Exercises on Stress Reduction and Sleep Quality among Staff Nurses: A Pre-experimental Study

Background: Occupational stress and poor sleep quality are very common among staff nurses. These problems place nurses at risk of psychological, neurological, and occupational health issues. Chronic stress and sleep disturbances correlate with neuroendocrine dysregulation, diminished cognitive functioning, and compromised patient safety. Mindfulness-based exercises are proving to be effective nontherapeutic approaches for dealing with these problems.

Objectives: This study was to evaluate an 8-week mindfulness-based exercise program and changes in perceived stress and sleep quality among staff nurses.

Methods: A quantitative pre-experimental one-group pretest–posttest design was adopted. Due to the absence of a control group, observed changes cannot be interpreted as causal effects, but rather as associations linked with the intervention period. Seventy staff nurses from a selected hospital were recruited using convenience sampling. Initially, the evaluations at baseline and post-intervention were done using the Perceived Stress Scale-10 and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Each participant completed an 8-week mindfulness-based exercise program. This took place in two sessions per week. Descriptive statistics, paired t -tests, Pearson’s correlation, and chi-square tests were used for data ‌analysis.

Results: Post-intervention, the mean stress score decreased from 20.06 ± 2.53 to 11.86 ± 2.02 ( P < 0.001), along with a significant improvement in mean sleep quality scores from 13.47 ± 2.31 to 6.20 ± 1.15 ( P < 0.001). Post-test stress and sleep quality scores showed a strong positive correlation ( r = 0.571, P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Mindfulness-based practices were associated with improvements in stress and sleep quality among staff nurses.