Shiraz E-Med J. 2022 April; 23(4):e117346. Published online 2021 December 21. doi: 10.5812/semj.117346. Research Article The Effect of the Benson Relaxation Technique on the Quality of Sleep and Working Life of Surgical Technologists in Shiraz Zinat Mohebbi 1 , Maryam Shaygan 2, * and Maryam Ghanavati 3 1 Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran 2 Department of Psychiatric Nursing, Community Based Psychiatric Care Research Centre, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran 3 Department of Operating Room Technologist, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran * Corresponding author: Community Based Psychiatric Care Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. Email: m2620.shaygan@gmail.com Received 2021 July 11; Revised 2021 October 13; Accepted 2021 November 24. Abstract Background: This study evaluated the effect of the Benson relaxation method on the quality of sleep and working life of surgical technologists. Methods: This randomized controlled trial was done on 180 surgical technologists who worked in 9 hospitals in Shiraz. Before the beginning of the intervention, participants were randomly assigned to either experimental or control conditions (simple random- ization). The experimental group listened to an audiotape of the Benson relaxation technique twenty minutes periods, two times a day for four weeks, while the control group did not receive any intervention at all. The Pittsburgh sleep quality index and Wal- ton quality of working life (QWL) questionnaires were used to measure the sleep quality and working life of surgical technologists, respectively. Results: Independent t-tests indicated that after the intervention, there were significant improvements regarding the total mean scores of quality of sleep (Mean (SD) Intervention = 2.88 (1.36), Mean (SD) Control = 15.1 (3.41), P < 0.001), and working life (Mean (SD) Intervention = 133.78 (9.22), Mean (SD) Control = 62.18 (19.68, P < 0.001) and their domains in the intervention group compared to the control group. Conclusions: Our findings are an important contribution to the previous research regarding the Benson relaxation technique as a non-drug, economical method. The current results can help health professionals for determine which psychological techniques are needed to be emphasized for promoting sleep quality and quality of working life in surgical technologists. Keywords: Benson Relaxation, Quality of Sleep, Quality of Working Life, Surgical Technologist 1. Background In Maslow’s pyramid, sleep and rest are among the ba- sic physiological needs of humans. Sleep creates condi- tions to relieve one’s daily tiredness, and this leads to phys- ical restoration (1) so that an unfavorable sleep does not lead to adverse effects on one’s general health (2). Sleep has two components: quality and quantity. The quality refers to the attainment of deep sleep, which is more important than the quantity of sleep (3). Workforce and work environment, stress, and irregu- lar sleep hours are among the important factors that can affect sleep quality. As a matter of fact, most shift work nurses suffer from poor sleep quality (4). In fact, nurses are the largest professional group in the healthcare system, and they are particularly involved in rotating schedules. According to the literature, 57% (4) and 62% (5) of nurses in Taiwan and Iran suffer from sleep disorders, respectively (6). Similar to other nurses, surgical technologists in the surgery wards have a heavy workload and inadequate rest time (7), and they frequently experience several stressors that decrease their quality of sleep, working life (8), and hospital productivity (6). One other factor that may be affected by workforce, work environment, and shift rotation is quality of working life (QWL). It is a new concept which has been used as a con- struct that relates to the conveniences or inconveniences of the workplace from the employees’ point of view (9). Al- though there is no consensus on the definition of QWL, it is a multidimensional concept that includes the aspects of job satisfaction, job tension, and organizational commit- ment (10). The QWL influences the nurses’ performance as well as the quality of patient care by nurses (11). Therefore, improvements in the QWL of nurses may have beneficial results for employees, hospitals, and patients (11). There is a need to promote effective programs to improve the qual- Copyright © 2021, Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.