Although sleep disturbance is a community problem, there is limited study in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the prevalence and factors affecting postpartum poor sleep quality in women.

A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from July 1st to August 30th, 2021 in Gondar city. The cluster sampling method was used to address 858 study participants. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) 19-item self-report measure of sleep quality over the past month was used to measure maternal sleep quality during the postpartum period and a global PSQI score of 5 or more was used to indicate poor sleep quality. Binary logistic regression was used to identify variable association and 95% confidence level and adjusted Odds Ratio were used to declare association.

Poor sleep quality prevalence during postpartum period was 24.0% (95%CI: 21.3–26.9). factors significantly associated with poor sleep quality were family size [AOR = 1.76; 95% CI: (1.14–2.73)], unplanned pregnancy [AOR = 2.11; 95%CI: (1.17–3.80)], had a family history of mental illness [AOR = 3.70; 95%CI: (2.15–6.37)], had known medical disorders [AOR = 2.59; 95%CI: (1.51–4.43)], having intimate partner violence [AOR = 2.58; 95%CI: (1.78–3.75)], and women who can read and write and who complete secondary school [AOR = 2.60; 95% CI: (1.20–5.66)] and [AOR = 2.02; 95%CI: (1.16–3.53)] respectively. On the other hand, being housewife, merchant, and government-employed [AOR = 0.32; 95%CI: (0.14–0.73)], [AOR = 0.13; 95%CI: (0.05–0.34)], and [AOR = 0.38; 95%CI: (0.14–0.98)] respectively were identified to be factors significantly associated with poor sleep quality.

Poor sleep quality prevalence is high in the community of Gondar city. Thus, setting strategies to increase women’s educational level, providing health education programs to create awareness on the consequence of intimate partner violence which could reduce the violence; increasing screening for medical disorders before or during maternity period, preventing unplanned pregnancy with effective family planning method, and employing women in a certain organization will have a great role in reducing poor sleep quality.