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Date: 31st March 2025Average Read Time: 2 mins 50 seconds
I received an email last week from the MDU (Medical Defence Union) and I couldn’t believe the stats in their latest survey….
They stated from a survey of 500 doctors that 90% feel sleep deprived at work, a third (35%) say tiredness impaired their ability to treat patients & one in five (22%) feel sleep deprived at work daily – a rate that has more than doubled in the last three years.
These numbers are terrifying and I used to be one of them.
I really NEED my sleep.
I feel so ill (almost hungover if I don’t get enough) so over the years I’ve tried various different things to improve the quality (& quantity) of my sleep and it felt like an appropriate time to share the key things that help me with you.
They stated from a survey of 500 doctors that 90% feel sleep deprived at work, a third (35%) say tiredness impaired their ability to treat patients & one in five (22%) feel sleep deprived at work daily – a rate that has more than doubled in the last three years.
These numbers are terrifying and I used to be one of them.
I really NEED my sleep.
I feel so ill (almost hungover if I don’t get enough) so over the years I’ve tried various different things to improve the quality (& quantity) of my sleep and it felt like an appropriate time to share the key things that help me with you.
1. Nasal Breathing
This has been a game changer for me when it comes to my sleep & overall fitness (especially with any cardiovascular activities such as running or swimming). The Oxygen Advantage is an amazing book which explains the science but essentially, sleep with your mouth closed. I don’t have to tape my mouth to do this (unless I have a cold) but you can if you want/need to. I can’t begin to describe how much better the quality of my sleep is by doing this. There are various mixed opinions online as to the effects of this with some studies stating clear benefits & others suggesting there aren't.... I feel it is one of those things that you need to try and discover for yourself whether it is or isn't helpful.
2. No Phone Zone
This means that I don’t use my phone for a specific time window around my sleep/bed. I try to aim for a 30 minute window (i.e. not using my phone for at least the 30 minutes before I sleep and at least 30 minutes after waking). It took me a while to get used to this but it means I actually go to bed instead of wasting time doom scrolling. It might mean you need to plug your phone in away from your bed (or in a different room all together). This has been invaluable at improving my sleep quantity especially when I’m feeling tired but my brain is still wired and won’t switch off easily. It encourages me to pick up a book, journal or just go to sleep.
3. Turning off the snooze function
I used to waste SO many 8 minutes each morning as I kept pressing snooze not once but 3 or 4 times. I thought I needed more sleep but I used to wake after these snoozes feeling even more tired! I realised this poor quality & interrupted sleep wasn’t actually helping me AND I needed to reprogram my sleep inertia (how quickly you fall back asleep after waking up). The only way to do this was to turn off snooze and I haven’t looked back... I would really recommend giving it a try for a week and see how you feel. It might be quite hard initially to force yourself to actually stay awake and get up when your alarm initially goes off but once you start to reprogram your sleep inertia it does get easier.... I found that I had to place my phone/alarm quite far away from my bed so that I had to physically get out of bed otherwise I would just fall straight back to sleep.
I don’t know what the answer is to addressing the amount of fatigue & exhaustion we are all experiencing, especially as healthcare professionals but I do know that we can focus on the things we CAN control as individuals.
The quality of our sleep is one of these things & I hope these tips might help (or at least inspire) anyone who feels their sleep could be better. Please let me know if you relate to any of this, just send me an email (elle@gabrielletodd.com) or reach out to me on instagram.
Did you know I offer 1:1 mentoring to help others make changes in their lives? This can be related to careers, starting a business or forming healthier habits. Please just send me an email directly to elle@gabrielletodd.com if this is something you feel you would benefit from & would like to learn more about.
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