Background Shift work sleep disorder is a crucial occupational health problem for nurses that not only causes health problems for them but also affects patient’s safety and job performance. Objective The aim was to assess the magnitude of sleep disorders among shift working nurses at Al Ahrar Governmental Hospital and to determine the associations between sleep disorders and work characteristics and their impact on quality of life. Materials and methods A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among 180 nurses. Data collection was done by using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index to measure the quality of sleep, insomnia severity index to measure self-perception of insomnia symptoms, Epworth sleepiness scale to measure daytime sleepiness symptoms, and functional outcome of sleep questionnaire to measure the quality of life. Results It has been estimated that 73% of shift work nurses are suffering from poor subjective sleep quality compared with the morning shift group (20%) and 60% of shift work nurses had sleep disturbances compared with 36.7% among the morning shift group with a significant difference (<0.01). Of the shift work group 31.1% was suffering from daytime sleepiness and 11.1% of them was suffering from moderate severity insomnia compared with 8.9% of the day working group (P<0.001). The overall average score of functional outcomes of sleep quality was higher among the day working group (17.62±1.07) compared with (16.23±1.4) of the shift work group (P<0.001). Conclusion Shift work sleep disorders are prevalent and important health concerns among nurses. Nurses’ sleep disorders can affect the patient’s safety by affecting the nurse’s performance and care quality. Therefore, planning for improving work shift schedules by hospital administration can be helpful and the use of day rest after night shift work can improve the sleep quality of nurses.