My work lanyard gets a lot of comments, and people spotting something on it and asking about it has started a lot of conversations over the years

All of the badges are there for some reason or another ... here's the updated story for them all First the lanyards themselves ... I have two intertwined, an @EvelinaLondon one and a 🏳️‍🌈 one

🏳️‍🌈symbols are important to me (surprise!), and more on that in a sec but ... I also really just like bright colours!

Dr Caroline Johnson has been appointed a minister in Department of Health

@drcarolinej’s voting record, considering her dual role as a consultant paediatrician, is one which has attracted attention in the past She voted against @AlfDubs motion asking that unaccompanied child refugees stranded in Europe be able to join relatives in the UK

https://twitter.com/DrMikeFarquhar/status/1220433068277846018

I’ve been an advisor to @TheLiminalSpace Night Club project for a while, but this is the first time I’ve had the chance to meet the team in person … great to see the project in reality!

#TheForgottenShift Night Club is a fantastic project working across industry (plus some NHS trusts, including @GSTTnhs) to emphasise the impact on sleep, sleep deprivation and fatigue of those who work shifts, especially nightshifts …

#TheForgottenShift

My name’s Mike Farquhar. I’m a consultant paediatrician, specialising in sleep medicine

I have a couple of professional side-interests in parallel to my main job

One is the impact of shiftwork and sleep deprivation on NHS staff

The other is around advocating for LGBT+ people I’ve spoken often about what I’m about to speak about again here; much of the content comes from a plenary talk I gave @RCPCHtweets 2019 Conference

But, for reasons that’ll hopefully become clear, I think it’s important to restate some of this yet again

twitter.com/i/events/11327…

Seems a good time to remind yourself that how you are thinking and feeling is likely a NORMAL response to EXTRAORDINARY circumstances

There is support and help out there

It is absolutely OK to not feel OK, but don’t ignore it

@DrShreeUnadkat

blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/03/16… (usual caveat that, because this was published in the BMJ, “healthcare professionals” was changed to “doctors” in the headline but, clearly, this isn’t just about doctors)

Whether you’re the parent of a toddler (or an adolescent) or, like @WelshGasDoc, an overtired shiftworker, many people know the frustration of trying to get themselves or someone else to sleep but, no matter how tired they seem, they just won’t do it

Sleep has rhythms How sleepy we feel, and how much we *need* to sleep don’t always match up

The simplest example of this is the post-lunch sleepiness many of us feel

Even if we don’t sleep, we usually feel *less* tired a few hours later when we’ve been awake longer

Weird, huh?

The @gmcuk annual training survey is out, looking in particular at the impact of COVID19 on medical trainers and trainees

gmc-uk.org/-/media/docume… As always there is lots of granular data in the report but at the high level:

~25% of trainees & ~20% of trainers score “high” or “very high” on Copenhagen Burnout Inventory questions in the survey

40% of both trainees and trainees describe work as emotionally exhausting

Maybe I’m not educated enough either but I genuinely struggle to understand how this Government can’t find money to support this, when so much has been frittered away elsewhere

That Tory MPs, including a consultant paediatrician, can in conscience vote against this amazes me

https://twitter.com/MarcusRashford/status/1318980281999761408

Also: @RCPCHtweets @RCPCH_and_Us ... I know @MarcusRashford has an MBE now, but surely he deserves recognition from us as well, in view of how determined he is to give voice to children and young people and advocate on their behalf?

I have two twitter accounts: a professional one (this one), a personal one, and I run a third account for @RainbowNHSBadge

I’ve been trying to decide which account to post this thread from but I think it has to be this one really My name’s Mike Farquhar. I’m a consultant paediatrician, specialising in sleep medicine

I have a couple of professional side-interests in parallel to my main job

One is the impact of shiftwork and sleep deprivation on NHS staff

The other is around advocating for LGBT+ people

I had a wee stint in our adult ICU team as part of COVID19 redeployment and, for some of that time, had an actigraph on

Actigraphy, worn like a watch, uses a number of sensors (mainly motion and light) to give an overall impression of sleep routine and pattern Shift pattern was 3 long days/3 days off/3 nights/3 off, then repeat cycle

LOTS of caveats about this data:
- on shift, actigraph was in a scrubs pocket, often under PPE
- it isn’t directly measuring sleep
- one day I forgot to put it on at all...
- etc

But...it gives an idea

The joys of the Internet!

Great to be watching @harvardmed sleep medicine legend Chuck Czeisler delivering a celebratory lecture on “A Brief Journey Through Circadian Time” @BrighamWomens, from the comfort of my office 💤 💡 Prof Czeisler talking us through the history of human circadian research, starting with some of the early experiments confirming the tendency of humans to “free-run” if deprived of external cues about day/night, light/dark

Today is #WorldNarcolepsyDay, aiming to raise awareness about a sleep disease which is often misunderstood by both the general public, and many doctors Narcolepsy often seen as a “funny” illness, the punchline of a joke, or as a “good” thing (“I wish *I* could fall asleep anywhere/time!”)

It absolutely isn’t

Narcolepsy is a serious neurological disease which can cause significant disability and impair quality of life

“You get to exhale now?

Growing up LGBT+ in the UK today”

This is a @TwitterUK version of the talk I gave @RCPCHtweets Conference this month

#LGBTMoment I grew up in Scotland in the 80s and early 90s.

The social and media attitude towards gay people, and LGBT+ people in general, was actively hostile and toxic.

Stories like this were the norm. The way people talked about gay people around me was generally negative

Right ... it’s been 7+ years since I last put on a pair of a scrubs to do a nightshift in a hospital

This is a slightly odd night shift though ... Welcome to Snow Leopard Ward @EvelinaLondon!

Phase 1 of Snow Leopard, opened in 2016, is our Transitional Care Unit, supporting patients who need Long Term Ventilation as they head from our acute wards to home

It’s #WorldSleepDay

Sleep is absolutely essential to your physical and mental health

Sleep’s rhythms underpin everything you do, ensuring your brain and body are working at their best: an MoT every night!

We’re often bad at recognising that, and prioritising sleep in our lives If you’ve had the right amount of good quality sleep, you should be waking physically and mentally ready to tackle the day ahead

#WorldSleepDay

This story about melatonin use in children is in the Guardian today

A few key points:

@EvelinaLondon @maxdavie @RCPCHtweets

theguardian.com/society/2018/n… As we better understand the importance of good quality sleep in childhood to short and long term health and development outcomes, more attention is being paid to sleep problems in children

Assessing, and deciding if/when intervention is needed, is therefore happening more often

Adolescents often get a hard time about how - and when - they sleep.

Some basic misunderstandings about adolescent sleep physiology often lie at the heart of it.

Here’s what you need to know: First of all, adolescence may not be what you think it is.

Adolescence is the period where body, brain and mind are transitioning from child to adult.

Physical changes in the brain continue into the early 20s, with frontal “executive” functions the last to fully mature

It’s #WorldSleepDay

Sleep is absolutely essential to your physical and mental health.

Sleep’s rhythms underpin everything you do, ensuring your brain and body are working at their best.

But we’re often bad at recognising that, and prioritising sleep in our lives If you’ve had the right amount of good quality sleep, you should be waking physically and mentally ready to tackle the day ahead

#WorldSleepDay

Ensuring you get enough sleep, and REM sleep in particular, makes you better able to cope with emotional stress.

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @drmikefarquhar view original on Twitter

Most REM tends to be found at the end of the night so, if you’re getting an hour less sleep than you need, it’s likely REM you’re losing