Tired NHS staff benefit from sleep trial

Hundreds of NHS staff from South Yorkshire have taken part in a new trial aimed at improving the quality of their sleep.

More than 300 employees took part in the programme, with 85% reporting chronic tiredness at the start.

According to figures from South Yorkshire NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB), the trial, believed to be the first of its kind to be run in the health service, had resulted in 75% of staff members taking part experiencing a tangible improvement in their sleep quality.

Jane Baker, who is 55 and from Barnsley, said the trial had made "such a difference" in the way she slept and the quality of her sleep.

South Yorkshire NHS ICB said it had launched the programme to address health inequalities in the workforce.

Ms Baker, who works as an educational mental health practitioner in Doncaster, said she had signed up to the programme after struggling with her sleep.

"I received an email at work and I thought it could be quite useful as although I don't work shifts, I was having sleep difficulties," she explained.

"I was finding it difficult to get to sleep and stay asleep. I was in pain and I felt quite stressed.

"Even though I was in bed for long enough, I was waking up shattered and I thought I needed to do something, but I didn't know what to do."

As part of the trial, staff were given a specially designed pillow and asked to fill in a detailed survey before later speaking to sleep posture expert James Leinhardt.

Mr Leinhardt has spent 15 years in the NHS working with patients with complex injuries, before educating people on sleep and spinal health.

Ms Baker said: "It was a robust, in-depth questionnaire with different pictures asking about sleeping positions.

"I then had a discussion with James about how I sleep and he was really knowledgeable.

"He unpicked that I was sleeping in an incorrect position which was causing some pain."

Ms Baker said that as a result she had been advised to use extra pillows to help with hip pain and neck alignment.

"It has made such a difference. It's so much easier to get to sleep, and when I wake up I'm not in pain. I feel so much more relaxed."

The scheme has been shortlisted in the Workforce and Wellbeing Initiative of the Year category of the Health Service Journal awards.

Winners are due to be announced at an awards ceremony in London on 19 March.

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