【Abstract】 Objective to explore the correlation among sleep quality, depression and life quality in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients. Methods Seventy-one patients fitting the criteria of MHD were recruited in this study. Subjective sleep quality was assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Life quality and depression condition were evaluated by SF-36 and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), respectively. Patients’ age, gender, marital status, dry weight, blood hemoglobin, and serum ferritin, transferring saturation, calcium, phosphorus, intact parathyroid hormone, albumin, C-reactive protein, creatinine and urea nitrogen were collected before and after dialysis. Results Poor sleep quality as defined by PSQI＞5 was found in 76.1% MHD patients. Patients with poor sleep quality had lower SF-36 scores, physical component summary score (PCS) and mental component summary score (MCS) (P＜0.01), as well as higher BDI score and older age (P＜0.05). Moderate to severe depressive symptoms as defined by BDI ≥ 8 were found in 63.4% MHD patients. Patients with moderate to severe depression also had lower SF-36 scores, PCS and MCS (P＜0.01), and higher PSQI score, as compared with those in patients without moderate to severe depression (P＜0.01). SF-36 score, PCS and MCS were closely related with PSQI score and BDI score (P＜0.01). Depression and sleep quality were the independent risk factors for life quality. Conclusion Our MHD patients had poor sleep quality and a high prevalence of depressive symptoms, which influenced each other and led to poor life quality.