The Value of Napping in the Workplace

Background: Nurses working night shifts have disrupted sleep patterns that are associated with emotional and physical fatigue, burnout, intent to leave, and poor nurse-sensitive outcomes. Twenty to 30 minute naps allow for sleepers to achieve the first two of the four total stages of the sleep cycle. Following these first two stages alone, sleepers effectively reduce the circadian drive to sleep and can function at a more optimal level once awake. Due to the inability to have uninterrupted sleep while working, napping should be researched as a solution to reducing fatigue and improving performance in the workplace. Hospitals should develop sustainable plans to implement napping as well and study its effects on night shift nurses.

Objective: The purpose of this review of literature is to investigate the value of napping for night shift nurses to reduce nurse burnout and counteract its effects on intent to leave and ultimately nurse-sensitive patient outcomes in nurses working the night shift.

Methods: Ovid Medline and CINAHL were searched using the following keywords: napping, nurses, workload, night shift, and burnout. The following phrases were also used to yield relevant results: “napping during the night shift,” “nurse burnout,” “clinical support in the workplace,” “intent to leave,” and “nurse sensitive patient outcomes.” The inclusion criteria included nurses working night shift and studies conducted in the United States and Canada. Articles were excluded if they focused on patient sleep results, the effects of sleep on hypertension, were published before 2010, and studies conducted in France, Brazil, and Finland.

Results: The search results yielded seven non-experimental studies. These articles were grouped by physical and psychosocial findings that contribute to poor nurse-sensitive patient outcomes. Three articles correlated physical fatigue and emotional exhaustion to professional commitment and nurse-sensitive patient outcomes. Two articles found that disrupted sleep patterns in nurses working consecutive twelve-hour night shifts led to a negative alteration in the quality of care they reported providing. Finally, two articles attest to the benefits of napping as an“evidence-based practice that has the potential to improve workplace safety” (Geiger- Brown, Sagherian, Zhu, Wieroniey, Blair, Warren, & Szeles, 2016, par. 28)

Conclusion: Based on the findings of this review of literature, the general consensus is that fatigue caused by disrupted sleep patterns in the setting of nurses working the night shift causes slower cognitive responses and decision-making abilities, disruptions in short-term memory, difficulty maintaining attention to detail, and slower motor skills. With napping recognized as a solution, barriers should be brought down by reworking the culture, initiating a dialogue, and elevating the solution to appropriate decision makers.