The number of physicians in the room who raise their hands “is just scary,” she said. “Drowsy driving is something that physicians need to pay attention to.”
If you're feeling sleep deprived after a long period of work, she maintains that only two things have been proven to make your ride home safer.
The first is a 15- to 20-minute nap before you go. “Or, if you're driving and you start feeling sleepy, pull over,” she said. “Get off the road and take your nap then.”
The second-best option is to consume 2 cups of drip coffee before you hit the road. “That's a lot,” she acknowledged. “Plus you have the problem of getting home and not being able to sleep.”
In a recent randomized study of emergency physicians, she and her associates found that a nap in the middle of a night shift led to improved job performance.
Performance measures included tests of memory recall and reaction time, as well as a computer-based IV insertion simulation that analyzes motor dexterity.
Subjects were given a 40-minute napping opportunity. The average amount of sleep time was 25 minutes.
“We did find evidence of improved performance during the shift in those subjects who were randomized to get a nap when compared with the group that didn't get the nap,” Dr. Smith-Coggins said.