Scheduled 30-minute naps helped hospital residents manage simulated cardiac arrest crises during 24-hour shifts.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- Simulated Crisis Performance: Scheduled nap breaks during 24-hour shifts improved overall performance on a medical crisis simulation by 7% among anesthesiology and intensive care residents.
- Nontechnical Skill Gains: Residents provided with scheduled rest opportunities scored 11% higher in nontechnical skills, showing the greatest gains in leadership and resource utilization during simulated cardiac arrest.
- Fatigue Mitigation Strategy: With participants averaging 22 minutes of sleep during monitored 30-minute breaks, scheduled napping may serve as a practical countermeasure against sleep deprivation to enhance patient safety in acute healthcare settings.
Providing brief, scheduled nap breaks for anesthesiology residents working 24-hour shifts may lead to better clinical performance, according to a clinical trial published in the October 2026 issue of Anesthesiology.
Sleep deprivation remains common among medical residents, particularly those working prolonged on-call shifts, which can compromise personal well-being and impair clinical judgment. The findings “provide initial evidence that a brief opportunity to power nap could mitigate the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on simulated crisis performance in anesthesia and intensive care residents,” according to study lead Laura Schmidt, PhD, of Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University in France, and colleagues.
Simulated Crisis Performance
The trial evaluated the effects of napping on clinical performance among 27 anesthesiology and intensive care residents experiencing partial sleep deprivation. Prior to the trial, all participants completed a brief nap training program highlighting napping as a fatigue management tool, according to the study.
Residents working a 24-hour shift were randomly assigned to either a monitored 30-minute nap or quiet rest without sleeping. Following their shifts, investigators evaluated participants during a simulated cardiac arrest crisis using a training manikin, comparing overall performance as well as separate scores for technical and nontechnical skills between the two groups.
Residents allocated scheduled naps demonstrated a statistically significant 7% improvement in overall crisis simulation performance compared to those in the no-nap control group. While technical skill scores trended higher among participants who took naps, that difference did not reach statistical significance.
Leadership and Resource Utilization
In contrast, nontechnical skill scores were 11% higher among residents who were assigned nap breaks, representing a statistically significant difference. The authors reported that improvements in nontechnical skills were most pronounced in leadership, communication, and resource utilization during the simulated medical emergency.
Most participants fell asleep during the allocated rest periods, averaging 22 minutes of total sleep time. An exploratory analysis further revealed that residents with longer sleep durations showed broader performance improvements across several areas, including technical metrics.
“Napping appears to enhance clinical performance, while the nap opportunity, nap duration, and previous sleep deprivation each influenced technical and nontechnical performance in distinct ways,” said Laura Schmidt, PhD, of Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University, in a news release. “Napping, before or during shifts, could potentially mitigate fatigue and increase patient safety.”
Fatigue Countermeasures in Clinical Practice
In an accompanying editorial, Manuel C Pardo, Jr, MD, and Matthew B Weinger, MD, MS, reviewed historical evidence regarding the clinical utility of napping and discussed strategies to establish evidence-based fatigue countermeasures for acute healthcare settings.
The editorial authors noted that despite trial size limitations, the study “generates an important hypothesis – a 30-minute power nap can improve the performance of a sleep-deprived anesthesiologist – that can be tested in future prospective trials.”
