On-call vs rostered night shifts — what’s better for sleep and cognition?
Researchers compared two kinds of shift patterns - a longer, more sporadic on-call shift or a series of consecutive nights.
Night shifts are an inescapable fact of life for trainee doctors, but now a study reveals that a set overnight roster results in better quality sleep than a traditional 24-hour on-call shift.
Even though both groups had a similar amount of sleep, a series of overnights was linked with better wellbeing, sleep patterns and cognition, the authors say.
