An emergency room physician completes her overnight shift in a busy, inner city emergency department. She stays an extra hour and a half to complete paperwork then goes home. Although exhausted, she’s “too wired” to sleep.

Eventually she dozes off but the phone calls from family and friends begin. She’s only able to get six hours of interrupted sleep before leaving home for the next shift. The ER physician is fatigued, irritable and frustrated.

Now repeat.

“This sleep pattern takes a terrible toll in the short and long term,” says Judith Owens, MD, MPH, director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital. “Shift work is associated with “deficient” sleep, meaning that both the amount and timing of sleep are altered. Our natural circadian rhythms result in humans being hardwired to sleep at night and be awake during the day, and the combination of this “misalignment” with insufficient sleep can be very problematic.” …Read More