What is the role of sleep in physician burnout?

None: The occurrence of physician burnout is widespread among clinicians and academic faculty, who report indicators such as low quality of life and poor work-life balance. Chronic insufficient sleep, whether due to extended work hours, circadian misalignment, or unrecognized sleep disorders, is a critically important risk factor for burnout that is overlooked and under-studied, and interventions to promote healthy sleep may reduce burnout susceptibility among attending physicians. While strategies to reduce burnout among resident and attending physicians have been under-evaluated, evidence suggests a need to address burnout at both individual and organizational levels. Solutions have been offered that are applicable to many stakeholders, including employers; payers; licensing and certification boards; state and federal regulatory agencies; and physicians and researchers. As more studies are undertaken to evaluate how these approaches impact burnout, two questions need to be addressed: (1) What is the role of sleep in the crisis of burnout, specifically among attendings, who are particularly under-studied? (2) Is restoration of healthy sleep the fundamental mechanism by which burnout interventions work? It is essential for key stakeholders to consider the role of sleep, sleepiness, and sleep disorders in order to optimize any efforts to mitigate the present crisis in physician burnout, particularly among attending physicians, an understudied group.

Sleep, fatigue and burnout among physicians: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine position statement.

None: Physician burnout is a serious and growing threat to the medical profession and may undermine efforts to maintain a sufficient physician workforce to care for the growing and aging patient population in the United States. Burnout involves a host of complex underlying associations and potential for risk. While prevalence is unknown, recent estimates of physician burnout are quite high, approaching 50% or more, with midcareer physicians at highest risk. Sleep deprivation due to shift-work schedules, high workload, long hours, sleep interruptions, and insufficient recovery sleep have been implicated in the genesis and perpetuation of burnout. Maladaptive attitudes regarding sleep and endurance also may increase the risk for sleep deprivation among attending physicians. While duty-hour restrictions have been instituted to protect sleep opportunity among trainees, virtually no such effort has been made for attending physicians who have completed their training or practicing physicians in nonacademic settings. It is the position of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine that a critical need exists to evaluate the roles of sleep disruption, sleep deprivation, and circadian misalignment in physician well-being and burnout. Such evaluation may pave the way for the development of effective countermeasures that promote healthy sleep, with the goal of reducing burnout and its negative impacts such as a shrinking physician workforce, poor physician health and functional outcomes, lower quality of care, and compromised patient safety.

Individual differences in the consideration of future consequences scale correlate with sleep habits, sleep quality, and GPA in university students.

The present study examined relationships between individual differences in the consideration of future consequences, sleep habits and sleep quality, and academic achievement in a sample of 231 undergraduates, 156 women and 75 men, whose ages ranged from 18 to 41 years (M = 19.0 yr., SD=2.82). Individuals were recruited from two introductory courses and two upper-division courses, one each in the fields of biology and psychology. An 8-page questionnaire was administered to assess variables relating to personality, sleep habits and quality, and grade point average (GPA). Each volunteer was given extra credit in their respective courses for participation. Higher scores on the Consideration of Future Consequences scale were associated with self-reported measures of more regular sleep schedules, greater satisfaction with sleep, a reduced likelihood of oversleeping, and higher grade point averages. Moreover, oversleeping was significantly correlated with both scale scores and GPA.