To bed or not to bed: the sleep question?

BackgroundSleep deprivation and fatigue from long-shift work impacts doctors’ personal safety, inhibits cognitive performance and risks clinical error. The aim of this study was to assess the sleep quality of surgical trainees participating in European Working Time Directive-compliant training rotations within a UK deanery.MethodsA trainee cohort numbering 38 (21 core, 17 higher surgical trainees, 29 men and 9 women, median age 31 (25–44 years)) completed a sleep diary over 30 days using the Sleep Time (Azumio) smartphone application and triangulated with on-call rosters to identify shift patterns. The primary outcome measure was sleep quality related to rostered clinical duties.ResultsConsecutive 1152 individual sleep episodes were recorded. The median time asleep (hours:min) was 6:29 (5:27–7:19); the median sleep efficiency was 86% (80%–93%); the median light sleep (hours:min) was 2:50 (1:50–3:49); and the median rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (hours:min) was 3:20 (2:37–4:07). Significant adverse sleep profiles were observed in trainees undertaking emergency on-call duty when compared with elective (non-on-call) duty; the median time asleep (hours:min) 5:49 vs 6:43 (p