Huddersfield Royal Infirmary Aim:

On-call rotas for consultant surgeons usually feature periods of night cover. This study aimed to analyse the quality of sleep during periods of night cover and compare with nights when not on-call.

Method:

A Fitbit Versa was used to monitor sleep patterns of a consultant surgeon. Total time spent in each phase of sleep (deep, REM, light) were recorded and compared between nights on-call and nights not on-call as well as with benchmark average figures.

Results:

When on-call, the subject fell asleep later than when not on-call (median = 63 minutes). Total amount of sleep per night was lower (median = 92 minutes) and the average time waking-up in the morning was 36 minutes earlier when on call.

The proportion of time spent awake or in light sleep was 32% higher when on-call and a lower proportion of sleep was within deep sleep or REM phases. It took 27 minutes to fall back asleep after an interruption in the sleep cycle and the subject only returned to deep or REM sleep a quarter of the time after being woken. The total amount of sleep was lower during all nights when compared with benchmark average figures.

Conclusions:

The subject slept less and worse than the benchmark average figure. Quality of sleep was worse when on-call and, after interruptions, it was rare to fall back into deep sleep. The effect of these findings on cognitive and decision-making abilities should be explored further and may show that protected time off after a night on-call is necessary.