The impact of the online mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program on sleep quality of nurses working in COVID-19 care units: A clinical trial

Objective: COVID-19 epidemic is associated with impaired sleep quality in nurses for several reasons. The present study aimed to determine the effect of an online mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program on improving the sleep quality of nurses working in the COVID-19 care units. Methods: In this randomized controlled clinical trial study, all nurses in the two COVID-19 patient care units were randomly assigned to the control and intervention groups. The MBSR program was implemented online for 7 weeks for the intervention group by a trainer. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was completed online by the participants in both groups before and after the intervention. Results: The results of the data analysis indicated that the intervention improved the scores of subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, and sleep efficiency in the intervention group. In the control group, there was a significant increase in the scores of subjective sleep quality, daily performance, and the total index score in the post-test. Besides, there was a significant difference between the two groups in only two components of sleep latency and subjective sleep quality.