Sleepless in Scrubs: JBJS Study Puts Trauma Calls to the Test

A new study in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (August 20, 2025) takes a hard look at what most orthopedic surgeons already know in their bones: home call wrecks your sleep. But this isn’t just anecdotal griping over lukewarm coffee in the trauma lounge — the data are finally in, and they’re not pretty. Here’s the study: “Home Call and Sleep in Orthopaedic Surgeons: A Prospective, Longitudinal Study of the Effect of Home Call on Sleep in Orthopaedic Attending Surgeons and Residents”

Researchers from Oregon Health & Sciences University and the University of Maryland’s R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center followed 16 attendings and 14 residents for more than a year, strapping WHOOP 3.0 bands to their wrists and collecting over 8,000 nights of data. Translation: the first time many of us have been objectively monitored outside of fellowship.

The Numbers Tell the Story

• Residents: 20% less total sleep on call nights, plus a 12% drop in both REM and slow-wave sleep (a.k.a. the brain’s housekeeping phases).
• Attendings: not spared—10% less total sleep, 7% less REM, 4% less slow-wave sleep.
• Recovery nights: didn’t fix the problem. Translation: no, you can’t “catch up” on the weekend.

Baseline sleep wasn’t great to begin with — 6.7 hours for residents and a brutal 6.0 hours for attendings, already well below the 7–9 hours most sleep scientists recommend for functioning like a normal human.

Why This Matters (Beyond Coffee Budgets)

Losing REM and slow-wave sleep isn’t just about feeling cranky on rounds. These are the stages when memory consolidates, skills embed, and the body repairs itself. If you’re chopping out chunks of REM and deep sleep, you’re impairing learning, decision-making, and recovery. In other words: the very things that make you an effective surgeon.

The authors — Lawson, Lancaster, Lipps, Slobogean, Brady, O’Hara, and Working — highlight what many of us whisper but rarely put in print: the structure of call is quietly eroding surgeon wellness and, potentially, patient safety. With no industry funding and more than a year of objective data, this is one of the clearest pictures we’ve seen of just how much “home” call actually costs.

So what now?

The study doesn’t end with doom and gloom — it pushes the conversation forward. How should residency programs, hospital systems, and practices rethink call structures? Can resilience training, recovery strategies, or smarter scheduling buffer the impact?

At minimum, the evidence strengthens the case for systemic change rather than leaving surgeons to “tough it out.” As the study makes clear, sleep loss isn’t just about fatigue — it’s about long-term wellness, technical performance, and patient outcomes.

Bottom line: You weren’t imagining it — home call really is eating your REM cycles for breakfast. And thanks to this study, there’s now data to back up what your body’s been telling you all along.