0299 Sleep Hygiene in Nurses Using Data Collected from Consumer Sleep Technology (CST) with the SleepTank™ mobile app

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Nurses are prone to fatigue and sleep disturbances due to extended hour or shiftwork schedules. Fatigue in nurses not only compromises their own health and safety, but jeopardizes patient care as well. Nurses' work hours and overtime are currently not federally regulated. Fatigue risk mitigation strategies for nurses would benefit from understanding the relationship between sleep duration and work patterns in order to develop tools and regulations to protect against fatigue in the nursing profession. Methods Thirteen (N=13) nurses wore a Fitbit Versa 2 and used the SleepTank™ mobile app during a 6-week work rotation. Nurses in this study selected their own work shifts but did have duty-hour limitations. Sleep data was extracted via the mobile app; work schedules were self-reported. Sleep duration data was summed by date to provide a 24-hour estimate of time in bed (TIB24). Repeated measures analysis of variance (rmANOVA) explored differences in TIB24 by number of consecutive days worked and time. Pearson’s correlations evaluated the relationship between work and sleep. Results Nurses (N=13) wore the device with the app for an average of 54±15 days. Forty percent (40%) of the study period were work days (22±10). Nurses slept longer on non-work days (525±153 min) compared to work days (481±143; t=3.21, p=0.001). Nurses worked 2 days in a row on average (Range: 1-5). TIB24 was ~30 minutes shorter with each consecutive day worked (F5, 81=8.11, η2=0.08, p=< 0.001). Routinely working a greater number of consecutive days was negatively correlated to TIB24 (r=0.71, p=0.009). Later average work start time was positively correlated with later bedtime (r=0.83, p< 0.001) and shorter TIB24 (r=0.65, p=0.01). Conclusion Working more days consecutively and working later shifts was related to shorter sleep duration and later bedtime in nurses. However, given that nurses in this study routinely slept longer than 7 hours per night, poor sleep hygiene does not appear to be an issue in this population. The ability to select their own work shifts may allow nurses to select a schedule that permits healthy sleep behavior. Support (if any) N/A