Sleep and daytime activity of dentists

Abstract

We investigated how dentists' sleep affects their daily life. The subjects were ten male dentists with an average age of 40 years. Their wrist movements (motor activity) was recorded for 7 days using an actigraph placed on the non-dominant wrist. In addition, the subjects were asked to keep a record of their sleep and daily activity.
     There were many days when the dentist retired after midnight. Five of the dentists always stayed up past midnight. The average time in bed was six hours and nine minutes, and the total average sleep time was five hours and 0 minutes, for a sleep efficiency rate of 82%. The average activity during dental diagnosis and treatment increased significantly with increases in the wake time after sleep onset during the previous night. The average activity during dental diagnosis and treatment decreased significantly with increases in the sleep efficiency during the previous night.
    These results suggest that dentists do not have good sleep habits and that the amount of sleep influences diagnosis and treatment.