At a recent lecture I was giving, I spoke with an ED physician who told me that he can function as a physician by anchoring his sleep. What is anchor sleep? You simply make sure that you get X number of hours a sleep at a specific time period regardless of your shift.This means that you may get 4 hours of sleep at the same time regardless of the shift if you are working an 8 hour shift. This anchor sleep must remain constant regardless of whether you are working too.

Sleep Tip #79: Anchor sleep if you are are a shift worker.