Global Adaptation: Designing Sleep for Shift Work Students

2021 Community Sleep Health and Public Awareness Grant

Daniel Blum, MD
NYU SHANGHAI

Key Project Outcomes

Due to COVID-19, over 1.2 billion students worldwide had to quickly adapt to remote-based education. NYU students experienced the extremes of sleep and circadian desynchrony due to the global nature of the organization (NYU’s global network consists of three degree-granting portal campuses – New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai – and 11 international locations). With students enrolled in courses at multiple international campus simultaneously, they were in essence operating as “shift work students”. As such, equipping students with sleep and circadian strategies was critical for mitigating the short-term consequences of shift work education (sleep disturbances, depression, withdrawal from courses) and for preparing them to thrive as they enter the global workforce. The goal of our project was to empower the student community to implement strategies to combat the negative effects of shift work education.

To tackle this issue, we developed and delivered sleep and circadian health curriculum through skill-based workshops, interactive online tools, and media. Additionally, we supported the student community by training student sleep health advocates to provide ongoing peer support related to sleep and circadian strategies.

Thanks to the support of the AASM Foundation Community Sleep Health and Public Awareness Grant, we will continue to refine these tools and material to support students to quickly adapt to the sleep and circadian challenges of immersive learning experiences around the world and to careers in the global workforce.