Objective To translate the Sleep Inertia Questionnaire(SIQ) into Chinese, and to test its reliability and validity among clinical nurses on night shifts, so as to provide a tool assessing the level of sleep inertia for this population. Methods A Chinese version of the SIQ was developed after translation, back-translation, cultural adaptation and pre-testing, then it was used to investigate 654 clinical nurses on night shifts from five hospitals to assess its reliability and validity. Results The Chinese version of the SIQ consisted of 19 items and four dimensions: physiological inertia, emotional inertia, inertial response, and cognitive inertia. The cumulative variance contribution rate of the four principal factors was 55.199%. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a good model fit. The CVI at the scale level was 0.905, and the item-level CVI ranged from 0.900 to 1.000. The Cronbach′s alpha coefficient of the scale was 0.735, and its test-retest reliability was 0.860. Conclusion The Chinese version of the SIQ demonstrates good reliability and validity, and it can serve as an assessment tool for sleep inertia among clinical nurses on night shifts in China.