Sleep is necessary for maintaining health and well-being. Work in the health area is organized in a shift system, which can interfere with workers’ s circadian cycle, making them more susceptible to physical fatigue and musculoskeletal pain.

To verify if there is an association between sleep quality and the number of regions with musculoskeletal pain in health workers linked to the Unified Health System (SUS).

A total of 125 health workers from different occupations who are part of the HEROES cohort were evaluated. Sleep quality was assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), considering the total score (ranging from zero to 21 points). The number of sites with musculoskeletal pain was assessed using the Nordic Musculoskeletal Symptoms Questionnaire (NMQ), ranging from zero to nine sites with pain. The factors age, gender, marital status, education, use of medication, tobacco, workplace, and hours worked were extracted from the sociodemographic questionnaire. Linear regression analysis was performed in the SPSS program with a significance level of 5%.

The sample consisted of woman (83.2%), hospital workers (48.8) with a workload of more than 30 hours per week (71.2%). Linear regression analysis showed that sleep quality is associated with musculoskeletal pain (R²= 24.04%; p= 0.000; CI= 1.05 – 2.90). With each increase of one point in the PQSI, there is an increase of 0.22 in the number of sites with musculoskeletal pain; that is, the worse the quality of sleep (bad sleepers), the greater the probability of the worker reporting musculoskeletal pain in more than one region.

Sleep quality was associated with the number of sites of pain in healthcare workers.

The findings of study show that it is necessary to return actions to care for the quality of sleep-in health workers, as well as to rethink the organization of health work, with a view to enabling shift alternation or other worker protection measures.