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Sleep among primary care physicians–Association with overtime, night duties and strategies to counteract poor sleep quality
Author(s) -
Gustavsson Katarzyna,
Wierzbicka Aleksandra,
Matuszczyk Michał,
Matuszczyk Maciej,
Wichniak Adam
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of sleep research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.297
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1365-2869
pISSN - 0962-1105
DOI - 10.1111/jsr.13031
Subject(s) - overtime , sleep (system call) , medicine , sleep debt , shift work , population , sleep deprivation , primary care , sleep disorder , psychology , family medicine , psychiatry , environmental health , insomnia , cognition , political science , computer science , law , operating system
Physicians belong to the risk group for sleep disorders as a result of work related stress, excessive working time, large amount of on‐call duties and shift work. Poor sleep quality of healthcare providers threatens not only their safety, but also the safety of their patients. This study examines if there are any differences in how working either long hours or at night duties relates to self‐reported sleep time, sleep quality and daytime sleepiness in primary care physicians. We analyzed data from a survey research of 807 participants. Respondents were divided into four groups based on their reported work hours per week and number of nights on duty per month. Overtime was associated with shorter sleep time and worse subjective sleep quality even when compared with that of participants who work on night duties. All investigated groups of participants reported short sleep latencies which suggests that sleep debt is a common problem in this population. Surprisingly in the case of poor sleep quality participants rarely used recommended methods like regular physical activity or specialist advice. The most frequently reported answer was that they do nothing to improve sleep and every third participants uses hypnotics to do that. These results suggest that primary care physicians despite being at high risk for sleep disorders due to working overtime and at night, pay less attention to their sleep quality and do not use recommended strategies to improve it.