[Short sleep latency in residents after a period on duty in anesthesia.].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Physicians in general, and anesthesiologists in particular, have long working hours. Residents of Anesthesiology may present significant fatigue and stress. This study aimed at investigating first and second year residents sleep latency after a period on duty. METHODS Participated in this study 11 residents in different situations: at 7:00 am, after a normal night sleep (> 7 h), without on duty period in the last 3 days (M1); at 7:00 am, after 24h of night work, without on duty period in the last 3 days (M2); and at 1:00 pm after 30h of work without on duty period in the last 3 days (M3). Continuous EEG was performed for all situations in adequate room to record sleep signals. Sleep latency (SL) was evaluated. RESULTS There has been significant shorter SL among residents after 24 or 30 hours without sleep. From residents after a normal night sleep the day before the evaluation, 36.4% presented pathological SL levels. CONCLUSIONS Periods on duty for 24 or 30 hours lead to SL values below 5 minutes, which are considered pathologic and reflect extreme fatigue of residents of Anesthesiology. It might be important to standardize the number of resting hours after duty periods.