[Night duty: increased risk of errors].

For people on night duty, such as medical personnel, a combination of poor quality daytime sleep and increased sleep pressure during the night may result in lowered levels of alertness and an increased risk of errors. In health care, the a priori risk of errors will differ between night and day shifts. This often hampers the interpretation of study results. Sleep, fatigue, and alertness of medical personnel should be assessed using simple methods, such as those used in the aviation industry, in order to stimulate individual awareness and to enable the development of countermeasures and a fatigue risk management system.