Happy Sunday!🌚
This past month, I've been working a lot of overnight shifts in the emergency department💤. I'll come right out and say it: I absolutely despise overnight shifts😡. Some people love them, but I am not one of those people.
For better or worse, I've gotten pretty good at handling overnight shifts🤷. One thing I've realized though is that this does not come naturally and has taken years of practice😪.
So this week on Sunday Morning Rounds, I wanted to share tips that have helped me to stay productive (and awake) while on overnight shifts☑️.
These tips will be useful for all residents and medical students, but especially for new interns who may be entering strings or entire blocks of overnight shifts.⬇️
- Flip your sleep schedule🔁. Our circadian rhythm is tuned to being awake and active during the day and resting at night. Overnight work is the exact opposite of this, and one thing that helps me prepare is flipping my sleep schedule. The basic idea is trying to stay up later and later in the days leading up to an overnight shift🌙. For me, this usually takes 2 days before my overnight shifts start⏳.
Say for example today is Monday, and I have an overnight shift on Wednesday night📆. I start by staying up a little later on Monday night, until around midnight, and then stay up even later on Tuesday night, until around 2:00 AM or 3:00 AM🦉. By the time Wednesday rolls around, I'm sleeping until the late morning/early afternoon and my body is more acclimated to staying up later in the evening👍🏼. - Create your caffeine survival kit☕. Anyone that works overnight shifts often knows that it's essential to have caffeine either regularly or for the extra busy nights. For some people, this might be a caffeinated beverage like CELSIUS or black coffee🫘. As someone who's more sensitive to caffeine, I prefer Verb energy bars that use organic green tea. Even with a flipped sleep schedule, sometimes an extra boost of caffeine is needed to help get through those graveyard hours🧟♀️. Find which items work for you and stay stocked up for when the overnights roll around.
- Sleep when you can🛌🏼. As the old adage in medicine goes: "Eat when you can, sleep when you can, and always take the stairs." If your hospital has a sleep room, use it! If 3:00 AM rolls around and things seem to have slowed down a bit, take a power nap😴. Even a 10-minute nap has been shown to leave people feeling more refreshed and energized⚡. While there might not always be free time to sleep, especially if you're the only doctor on or the hospital is buzzing🏥, when the opportunity is there, take it. Your body will thank you later🫂.
- Maintain healthy habits🍎. Overnight shifts can be difficult and stressful, and it can become easy to reach for some instant gratitude like takeout🍔 or sweets🍫. While this is okay in moderation, it's also important to maintain healthy habits while the rest of the world sleeps. This means staying hydrated💧, eating fruits/vegetables🥕, and avoiding sugary drinks like Monster that can lead to a crash later🚫. It may take some practice, but creating healthy habits while working through the night can ensure more restful sleep once we do go home as well as a myriad of other short and long-term benefits.
Overnight shifts may not be my favorite, but by using these tips I feel more confident about doing a good job at work and coming home to get some well-deserved sleep. I hope these tips help you do the same!😁
📖 Keep Reading: Click here to read about the skills that all good residents should have.
📨 Subscribe to Sunday Morning Rounds: Sign up for my newsletter and receive weekly tips and resources to help you learn, grow, and become a better doctor.
📱 Social media: Find me at @MedSchoolMoose on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to enjoy more of my content!