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The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) implemented duty hour regulations in 2011 mandating single shifts lasting ≤16 hours for interns. Whether this helps or hinders education and patient care is still debated; according to survey data, the regulations have not increased overall sleep duration. The current study of post–on-call alertness took place before implementation of the ACGME regulations and involved 137 interns (including 32 senior medical students) and 87 residents (with few extended on-call shifts).
Each participant wore an actigraph, which accurately measures sleep patterns, and performed a 3-minute psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) each morning between 6 and 9 a.m. The PVT measures reaction time to stimul…