'Power Naps' May Improve Clinical Performance for Sleep-Deprived Anesthesiology Residents

CHICAGO – For anesthesiology residents working 24-hour shifts, providing brief, scheduled "nap opportunities" may lead to better clinical performance, reports a clinical trial in the October 2026 issue of Anesthesiology, the peer-reviewed medical journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA).

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 the study by Laura Schmidt, Ph.D., of Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University, France, and colleagues.

Sleep deprivation is common among medical residents – especially those working 24-hour on-call shifts, which can affect well-being and cause impairment in clinical judgement and performance. Although scheduled nap breaks have been suggested to alleviate fatigue, research on the effectiveness of this strategy is limited.

The study evaluated the effects of napping on clinical performance among anesthesiology and intensive care residents with partial sleep deprivation. All participated in a brief "nap training" program, which emphasized the role of napping as a tool for fatigue management.

Residents working a 24-hour shift were randomly assigned to a monitored 30-minute nap or quiet time without napping. After their shift, they were evaluated on a medical crisis simulation (cardiac arrest) using a training manikin. Performance on the simulation overall, as well as separate scores for technical and nontechnical skills, were compared for residents with and without scheduled naps.

On analysis of 27 participants, those with scheduled naps showed a small but significant improvement in overall performance on the crisis simulation: 7% better than the no-nap group. Scores for technical skill tended to be better for participants with nap breaks, although the difference was not statistically significant.

In contrast, scores for nontechnical skills were significantly higher for residents with naps: 11% better than without nap breaks. The improvement in nontechnical performance was greatest in the areas of leadership and resource utilization.

Most residents slept during scheduled naps; average sleep time was 22 minutes. On exploratory analysis, those with longer nap times showed improvement in several aspects of performance, particularly for technical skills.

"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 Dr. Schmidt. "Napping, before or during shifts, could potentially mitigate fatigue and increase patient safety."

In an accompanying editorial, Manuel C. Pardo, Jr., M.D., and Matthew B. Weinger, M.D., M.S., take stock of previous research on the potential benefits of napping and approaches to develop further evidence on “realistic fatigue countermeasures” in anesthesia practice. Within its limitations, the new 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."

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS
Founded in 1905, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) is an educational, research and scientific society with more than 60,000 members organized to advance the medical practice of anesthesiology and secure its future. ASA is committed to ensuring anesthesiologists evaluate and supervise the medical care of all patients before, during, and after surgery. ASA members also lead the care of critically ill patients in intensive care units, as well as treat pain in both acute and chronic settings.

For more information on the field of anesthesiology, visit the American Society of Anesthesiologists online at asahq.org. To learn more about how anesthesiologists help ensure patient safety, visit asahq.org/madeforthismoment.  Follow ASA on Facebook, X, Instagram, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.

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