What is pajama time?
Pajama time is the industry's name for the EHR work that follows physicians home: notes finished at the kitchen table, an inbox cleared before bed, tomorrow's charts reviewed after tonight's dinner. Time-motion studies of EHR use put it at 1 to 2 hours a night.
Written by Dr. Tattvam A. Nair, Co-Founder & COO of Layrd. Updated August 2026.
Where the hours go
The evening splits into 3 buckets. Notes from today that never got finished between rooms. The inbox that refilled during clinic: faxes, results, refill requests, messages. And the review for tomorrow: opening each chart to reconstruct what happened since the last visit, so the first minutes in the room are not spent scrolling.
Why typing faster does not fix it
Little of the evening is spent typing. The hours go to reading and reconstruction: piecing together the story from labs, consult notes, and imaging scattered through the record. A scribe shortens the writing of the visit note. The review before the visit and the inbox after it are untouched, and they are the bigger buckets.
What removing it takes
Two things, both structural. The note has to exist before the visit, written from everything in the record, so the review is reading one prepared document instead of reconstructing 20. And the inbox has to be triaged before anyone opens it, so what reaches a person is only what needs a decision.
What it looks like removed
Practices on Layrd get 12 to 16 physician hours a week back from chart preparation alone. At Lonestar Rheumatology in Houston, Dr. Nilanjana Bose cut chart prep time by 50 to 60% in her first 3 months, across 650+ precharted visits.
Where Layrd fits
Layrd writes each visit's note inside the EMR before the patient arrives, in your own charting style, with every line cited to its source document. The same system triages every fax and document around the clock. The evening work does not get faster. It stops being yours.
How much pajama time do physicians log?
Time-motion and audit-log studies of EHR use consistently find 1 to 2 hours of after-hours work a night for ambulatory physicians, on top of the clinic day.
Does an AI scribe end pajama time?
It shortens the part that is writing the visit note. The chart review before tomorrow's visits and the inbox that refilled during clinic remain, and they are usually the larger share of the evening.
What removes the evening work?
The note existing before the visit instead of after it, and the inbox being triaged before staff and physicians open it. When those two things are true, there is nothing left to take home.
What results has this produced in practice?
Practices on Layrd get 12 to 16 physician hours a week back from chart preparation. At Lonestar Rheumatology, Dr. Nilanjana Bose cut chart prep time by 50 to 60% in her first 3 months.
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