The mediating and moderating effects of sleep hygiene practice on anxiety and insomnia in hospital nurses

Abstract This study aimed to test the mediating and moderating effects of sleep hygiene practice on the relationship between anxiety and insomnia severity in hospital nurses. A cross-sectional survey was employed, and a convenience sample was recruited from one regional hospital in Taiwan. Participants completed the following self-report questionnaires over a 3-month period in 2009: the Insomnia Severity Index, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Sleep Hygiene Awareness and Practice Scale. The results indicated that nurses with more anxiety tended to have higher insomnia severity. Further, nurses with poor sleep hygiene practice had more insomnia. Sleep hygiene practice partially mediated the effects of anxiety on insomnia severity. Also, sleep hygiene practice was a moderator in the relationship between anxiety and insomnia severity with age and work units as covariates. Sleep hygiene practice mediated and moderated the relationship between anxiety and insomnia severity after controlling the variables of age and work units. Continuing to learn and train sleep hygiene practice might promote nurses' sleep hygiene, and thereby ameliorate anxiety and reduce the risk of insomnia.