Abstract Background Poor sleep is associated with bad health outcomes, worse well-being and decreases in performance, productivity and safety at work. Police officers are exposed to several risk factors including extended work schedules, shift work, occupational stress, dangerous and traumatic events and can, as such, develop sleep problems. So, this study aimed to compare quality of life, occupational stress level, between shift and non-shift workers’ policemen working at El-Agouza Police Hospital. This was a cross-sectional comparative study conducted on 64 policemen working in 6 different Police department recruited from sleep clinic neuropsychiatry department at EL-Agouza Police Hospital serving police officers in El-Nile Street, Giza, Egypt. The total included cases were classified to two groups: group I (shift workers) included 32 of shift workers who provide service across, all 24 h of the clock each day of the week (often abbreviated as 24/7), group II (non-shift workers): included 32 of non-shift workers. Results Occurrence of sleep disorders was significantly higher in the shift workers compared to the non-shift worker group (p