Improving performance on night shift: a study of resident sleep strategies.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To identify sleep strategies of internal medicine residents transitioning to night shift and report their effect on performance. METHODS: Residents logged hours of sleep and work starting 3 days prior to the first night shift and continuing through the next 8 days. Cohorts were defined by sleep logs and compared separately by transition strategy, total hours of sleep, amount of sleep occurring at work, weekend sleep schedule, and residency training year. Data from logs were entered into the Fatigue Avoidance Scheduling Tool to measure predicted Performance Effectiveness (PE) during each night shift. RESULTS: Twenty-three residents were evaluated. The Sleep Banking transition strategy (n = 2) had higher PE (mean = 88.6%) than all other sleep strategies combined (n = 21, mean = 80.9%; P = .016). Additionally, residents who slept an average of 8-9 hours daily during their week of night shifts had a higher mean PE compared to those who slept < 6 hours (86.8% vs 78.6%; P = .014). CONCLUSIONS: Residents who engaged in Sleep Banking prior to the first night shift had higher PE and spent less time above a 0.05% blood alcohol concentration equivalent compared to all other strategies. Similarly, PE and time spent above a 0.05% blood alcohol concentration equivalent improved with increased average hours slept per day during the week of night shifts. Optimizing performance on night shift through the adoption of efficacious sleep strategies is imperative to mitigate patient safety issues that may result from poor alertness and cognitive abilities. CITATION: Cushman P, Scheuller HS, Cushman J, Markert RJ. Improving performance on night shift: a study of resident sleep strategies. J Clin Sleep Med. 2023;19(5):935-940.

Edward E. Sampson (1934-2019).

Presents an obituary for Edward E. Sampson (1934-2019). Sampson was a brilliant critical psychologist and social commentator. As a child he aspired to become "a song and dance man" but settled for being an inspiring teacher, ground-breaking writer, and skillful (and humorous) public speaker. When he laughed or danced, he bore a remarkable likeness to the famous Gene Kelly. He was effortlessly charismatic and yet suspicious of the leader-follower dynamic, a tension that moved him to eschew public leadership roles and self-promotion. Sampson's sociopolitical vision, personal and professional integrity, and creative intelligence are an inspiration to all who read his work, knew him, or learned from him. The world is a poorer place for his absence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).