269 - Assessing the Relationship of Sleep and Physician Distress
Monday, April 28, 2025
7:00am – 9:15am HST
Publication Number: 269.3778
Julie A.. Young, Nationwide Children's Hospital, WESTERVILLE, OH, United States; Nikhil Sekar, Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, United States; James A. Onate, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States; Angela Emerson, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States; Morgan Orr, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States; Alan Schwartz, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States; John D. Mahan, John D Mahan, Professor of Pediatrics, Nationwide Children's/The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States
Project Manager Nationwide Children's Hospital WESTERVILLE, Ohio, United States
Background: Physician distress is a common phenomenon that can affect physician well-being and patient care. Better understanding of the factors that impact distress is essential to promote design of effective physician programs. Objective: We aimed to determine the relationship between objectively measured sleep variables with subjectively reported physician well-being. Design/Methods: Pediatric residents and faculty physicians were fitted with Oura rings, which collected data for two months on their sleep habits. Every evening, participants completed an End of Day (EOD) survey about their emotional state and stress levels that day, from which a cumulative score was determined. We measured the relationship between Oura collected data, including Longest Continuous Sleep (LCS) and Total Sleep Time (TST), with EOD scores. The relationship between Oura proprietary black-box scaled scores (recovery, restfulness, sleep timing, readiness, and sleep score) with EOD scores was also examined. Results: Results were analyzed from 48 participants who had worn their Oura Ring and completed the EOD survey on the same days over the course of 8 weeks. Greater LCS correlated with a lower EOD score (p < 0.001), with lower EOD total scores indicating less distress. Similarly, higher TST was associated with lower EOD total scores (p = 0.015). Each EOD question was inversely associated with LCS and TST score (all p-value < 0.001). Secondary variables, Recovery and Sleep Score were negatively correlated with EOD score (p = 0.015, p < 0.001, respectively). Sleep Timing and Restfulness were positively correlated with EOD score (p < 0.001 and p=0.004, respectively). Readiness was not associated with EOD scores.
Conclusion(s): We found that longer sleep time the previous night was significantly associated with lower subjective values of distress the following day. These results are important because Oura-measured LST and TST have acceptable validity with polysomnography. Sleep quantity is a modifiable health behavior that should be targeted to improve physician and trainee well-being. Proprietary Oura-generated variables related to sleep were inconsistent; Better Recovery and Sleep Score numbers were associated with lower distress, but better Sleep Timing and Readiness were associated with higher distress. While consumer-based scaled scores may be useful to conceptualize sleep variables, more research is needed to substantiate their usefulness.
