Using Wearable Technology to Evaluate Sleep and Stress for Physicians

Physician stress and burnout are increasingly prevalent issues that often are exacerbated by chronic sleep deprivation. Poor sleep not only compromises the well-being of physicians but also can negatively affect patient care and safety. As wearable technology has become more advanced, the potential is growing to use these devices to monitor and analyze physiological metrics such as sleep and stress levels in real time. This systemic review aims to investigate the use of wearable technology to track sleep quality, stress, and burnout among physicians at various levels of training.

A systematic review was conducted according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines using Medline, Cochrane, and Embase to identify studies that used wearable technology to monitor sleep and stress outcomes in physicians. Inclusion criteria focused on studies that specifically measured sleep quality, stress, and burnout using wearable technology. Thirteen studies were included in this review. Data extracted from the included studies detailed study design, participant characteristics, type of wearable technology used, and measured sleep outcomes and heart rate variability (HRV) data.

The data of 540 physicians were included in this study, with Emergency Medicine and Trauma Surgery representing the largest proportion of specialties assessed. Physicians not on call slept an average of 398.3 ± 49.0 minutes per night, whereas those on call slept an average of 226.0 ± 71.3 minutes per night. Physicians also spent 82.5 ± 13.4 minutes in rapid eye movement sleep per night and 41.3 ± 21.8 minutes awake in bed before falling asleep. HRV measures showed an average standard deviation of the R-R intervals across studies of 62.7 ± 28.8 milliseconds.

Wearable technology data indicate that physicians sleep less than the recommended amount per night and have reduced sleep quality measures. HRV data indicate increased levels of stress and burnout. The data provided by wearable technology may improve physician well-being and ultimately patient care.