Objective To explore the relationship between sleep, coping tendency, anxiety and subjective well-being among crew of surface warship, and to elucidate the psychological mechanism of sleep affecting subjective well-being. Methods A total of 295 crew members of surface warship were selected by random sampling method. Athens insomnia scale, generalized anxiety disorder-7, simplified coping style questionnaire and Memorial University of Newfoundland scale of happiness were used for questionnaire survey. Pearson correlation analysis and mediation effect test were used for data analyses. Results A total of 288 valid questionnaires were collected, with an effective rate of 97.63%. The results of the correlation analysis showed that sleep was negatively correlated with coping tendency and subjective well-being, coping tendency was negatively correlated with anxiety, and anxiety was negatively correlated with subjective well-being (all P＜0.01); sleep was positively correlated with anxiety, and coping tendency was positively correlated with subjective well-being (both P＜0.01). The analysis of chain mediating effect showed that the sleep of the members could affect the subjective well-being not only through the single partial mediating effects of coping tendency and anxiety, but also through the partial chain mediating effects of coping tendency and anxiety. Conclusion Coping tendency and anxiety play a part of chain mediating role between sleep and subjective well-being among crew members of surface warship.