The phone does not have to ring to disrupt your night. Simply being on standby keeps the brain in a lighter waking state, so you relax less deeply. The mental tension of readiness keeps the nervous system active, even when no alarm sounds.
And when the phone does ring, a broken night works through longer than expected. Those who switch straight to the next day after a night call-out build up a debt that only shows later, often first in decision-making and mood.
What happens in the workshop
Participants learn what readiness does neurobiologically to sleep, recovery and alertness, and how to mentally disconnect while staying reachable. They work with caffeine timing, light exposure and micro-recovery, and practise how to wind down hyper-alertness after a night call-out. With live drums, Leo makes tangible how the brain switches between tension and rest.
There is specific attention to the signals that indicate when decision-making is coming under pressure, and how to steer on it rather than being caught out by it.
What you take away
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Understanding of what readiness does to sleep and recovery
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Techniques to disconnect without being unreachable
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An approach to wind down after a night call-out
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Insight into your own signals of accumulated fatigue
What it does for the organisation
People who start a deployment more rested and make better decisions during night call-outs. Less silent wear on staff who are on call for days, and a shared norm for recovery around on-call weeks.
The science behind it
Developed by Leo van Woerden, a neuroscientist with 25 years of experience in sleep, stress and recovery. He studied at VU Amsterdam. Facts are separated from myths, in a market full of sleep myths.
From practice
Suited to organisations where standby duty is structural. Comparable work on sleep and shifts has been proven at safety regions, including the multi-year programme at Veiligheidsregio Utrecht.
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