It\u2019s 1.30am, Friday morning.\u00a0 I\u2019m struggling to keep awake on the first night shift of the year.\u00a0 One down (well half of it anyway), six more to go.\u00a0 I\u2019m a light sleeper at the best of times, however, after a busy med reg night shift, it\u2019s a different story.\u00a0 I\u2019ve slept through our smoke alarm going off (husband cooking dinner).\u00a0 I\u2019ve slept through fire engines running outside our house (husband cooking dinner).\u00a0 Once heavy duty trucks came and dug up the road in front of our house to replace a cracked water pipe (unrelated to husband cooking dinner) \u2013 slept through that too.<\/p>\n
Some people handle night shifts a bit better.\u00a0 But on the whole, it\u2019s not a favourite time for doctors, and not a favourite time for patients either.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How do night shifts impact on our neurological function?<\/p>\n
How does this in turn impact our patients?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ogbu et al <\/a>commented that there was a higher mortality for ischemic stroke patients who were admitted over night, and on weekends, compared within business hours.\u00a0 This may be to do with resources and staffing as much as the inherent tiredness that accompanies night shift.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In med school we learnt that being over-tired impairs you as much as having a few too many alcoholic drinks.\u00a0 You\u2019re able to recall information such as doses of antibiotics, but struggle to recognise patterns and diagnose \/ treat appropriately.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How do we fix sleepiness due to night shift?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n