Institute for Continuing Education

New Sleep Awareness Program Aimed at Residents and Shift Workers

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Describe the physiological and cognitive consequences of acute and chronic sleep deprivation in healthcare workers, including impacts on patient safety, clinical performance, personal health, and occupational injury risk.
• Explain current evidence-based work-hour regulations and sleep-related safety guidelines for medical residents and healthcare shift workers, including ACGME duty hour requirements, AASM recommendations, and international standards.
• Identify the unique challenges of shift work and night work on circadian physiology, sleep quality, metabolic health, cardiovascular function, and overall wellbeing in healthcare populations.
• Apply evidence-based sleep hygiene strategies specifically adapted for shift workers and medical residents, including strategic napping, light exposure optimization, sleep scheduling techniques, and environmental modifications.
• Recognize signs and symptoms of shift work disorder, chronic sleep deprivation, and related sleep pathologies in healthcare worker populations, understanding when referral for comprehensive sleep evaluation is appropriate.
• Integrate knowledge of fatigue management, alertness optimization, and workplace safety strategies into education and support for healthcare workers undergoing sleep studies or seeking assistance with sleep-related concerns.
• Understand the sleep technologist's role in serving the unique needs of healthcare workers as patients, recognizing occupational sleep challenges, providing tailored education, and supporting implementation of realistic sleep health interventions compatible with demanding work schedules.

Course Information

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) offers an extensively updated and revised version of S.A.F.E.R. (Sleep, Alertness and Fatigues Education in Residency), a tool for educating residents about the effects of sleep deprivation on performance.

The new version includes an expanded PowerPoint presentation with core sections on recognizing sleepiness, the effects of fatigue on medical education and strategies for managing drowsiness.

The updated program came about after researchers at Brown University determined that drowsy residents performed as poorly or worse as someone who had consumed three to four alcoholic beverages. The study is published in a September 2007 issue of JAMA.

Nowhere are the effects of lifestyle on sleep more evident than in shift work disorder, also called shift work change (SWC) and shift lag. As the global marketplace continues to turn the time-to-productivity ratio to its favor, more and more employees are needed to work unconventional shifts. Nearly 20% of employees in industrialized countries are employed in shift work, which requires them to drastically change their sleep habits weekly or even daily.

While there are few statistics for the prevalence of shift work disorder, approximately 20% of shift workers report falling asleep during work, which increases the risk of industrial accidents and decreases productivity. Ironically, shift work can diminish the economic gain it is designed to create.