Do you have time to nap during residency and beyond?

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forget naps, the worst part about residency is finding someone to put your juice in a sippy cup, pick out your clothes the night before, and read a good ****ing rendition of "bernstein's bears" to get you to sleep at night.
 
frodohobo said:
I can't function if I don't take a 30 minute nap during the day. Will this be possible as a resident, fellow, or attending?
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Sounds like you're still in college, and I totally sympathize with you if you have an actual medical condition that basically renders you falling asleep throughout the day and sleeping 12 hours a night if allowed. The sad reality is that college is a wonderful magical time in life where you only have to be in certain places for 50 minutes at a time throughout the day (and you can not show up with minimal consequences if you want), leaving plenty of time for going home and taking a nap. You need to figure out just how bad your problem is. If it's a matter of you just staying up till 3 every morning screwing around on the internet and that's why you're tired, that just means you're a normal college student and you're taking advantage of the freedom your schedule offers. When you graduate, you will be forced to adjust, and most people are able to make this adjustment. If you actually have a legitimate medical condition causing EDS, you might want to consider career options where you can work from home or set your own schedule while you are still young enough. Yes, certain specialties in medicine can allow you to have your own practice and built a bedroom in your office if you want. But to get there, you will have to endure a minimum of 5 years of grueling med school, internship, and residency where you are expected to be "on" for a minimum of 8 hours at a time, sometimes up to 20 or even 30 hours at a time.
 
southernIM said:
Intern year I would often get home, plop down on the couch, close my eyes briefly in the hopes of a quick power nap...and then wake up covered in drool the next morning with my alarm going off.
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This happens to me on occasion. I come home, thinking "Yay, gonna enjoy the night...but I'll take a quick snooze" and a quick lie on the bed turns into a very long slumber that is rudely interrupted by an alarm clock.

Or maybe my bed has some secret sedation power!
 
atomi said:
Sounds like you're still in college, and I totally sympathize with you if you have an actual medical condition that basically renders you falling asleep throughout the day and sleeping 12 hours a night if allowed. The sad reality is that college is a wonderful magical time in life where you only have to be in certain places for 50 minutes at a time throughout the day (and you can not show up with minimal consequences if you want), leaving plenty of time for going home and taking a nap. You need to figure out just how bad your problem is. If it's a matter of you just staying up till 3 every morning screwing around on the internet and that's why you're tired, that just means you're a normal college student and you're taking advantage of the freedom your schedule offers. When you graduate, you will be forced to adjust, and most people are able to make this adjustment. If you actually have a legitimate medical condition causing EDS, you might want to consider career options where you can work from home or set your own schedule while you are still young enough. Yes, certain specialties in medicine can allow you to have your own practice and built a bedroom in your office if you want. But to get there, you will have to endure a minimum of 5 years of grueling med school, internship, and residency where you are expected to be "on" for a minimum of 8 hours at a time, sometimes up to 20 or even 30 hours at a time.
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Nice response. I'm actually out of college but I still do find time for a 30 min nap during lunch time at work which helps tremendously with my productivity. I see what you're saying and I guess I will have to start getting used to it!
 
frodohobo said:
Nice response. I'm actually out of college but I still do find time for a 30 min nap during lunch time at work which helps tremendously with my productivity. I see what you're saying and I guess I will have to start getting used to it!
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Maybe you should see a doctor. If you need a nap to function in the office that doesn't sound totally normal.
 
frodohobo said:
Really? I thought everyone has the afternoon slump. Or is it just hobbits.
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A slump bad enough that you'd actually take a nap in public? That seems weird unless you are chronically sleep depriving yourself. I mean if you go to bed at 2 and start work at 8 that would make sense. Also, <3 Frodo so much 😍😍😍
 
scarletgirl777 said:
A slump bad enough that you'd actually take a nap in public? That seems weird unless you are chronically sleep depriving yourself. I mean if you go to bed at 2 and start work at 8 that would make sense. Also, <3 Frodo so much 😍😍😍
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Hm, I do go to bed at 11 and wake up at 5 am so maybe I am sleep deprived. Either way, my goal is to start sleeping well, eat healthier, and exercise and hopefully well being will help during residency.
 
frodohobo said:
Hm, I do go to bed at 11 and wake up at 5 am so maybe I am sleep deprived. Either way, my goal is to start sleeping well, eat healthier, and exercise and hopefully well being will help during residency.
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6 hours of sleep every night is kind of a luxury during residency. Naps aren't happening.
 
gutonc said:
6 hours of sleep every night is kind of a luxury during residency. Naps aren't happening.
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Well, it all depends on your priorities. Excluding call nights I was able to get 8 or 9 hrs more often than not, but I was willing to reduce studying and socializing with my spouse (plus I lived close and didn't care that much how I looked so I could make it from bed to pt bedside in about 15 minutes). Although with the new work hour rules it would be more of a challenge (if you work 16 hrs it is impossible to get 8 hrs of sleep).
 
What's your specialty going to be? I'm FM and I can take naps from time to time. I took quite a few in the call room when on inpatient service during the lull of the day. It's hard to get a lot done when you get home, though (reading, cooking, working out).

I haven't found much time to go to the gym while on critical care unless I want to jeopardize my sleep at night. That said, I've been sleeping more soundly now that I've been constantly busy in the hospital.
 
gutonc said:
6 hours of sleep every night is kind of a luxury during residency. Naps aren't happening.
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It's better now than it used to be. Even on inpatient IM rotations, I can sleep 8 hours most nights if I don't get distracted by the Internet.

But I agree that you definitely can't rely on the ability to nap daily.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you're not sleeping enough at night, you'll be more likely to need a nap during the day. Saying "I can't function without a 30-minute nap on top of my 6 hours of sleep" is equivalent to saying "I can't function effectively on only 6 hours of sleep," which is perfectly normal. If you're sleeping 8-9 hours and still require a nap, then you need to see a doctor.
 
Depending on your seniority in clinic... As a junior resident its nearly impossible to take a nap during residency, sometimes you can not get any sleep at night. While I was junior resident one day I had fainted in OR. Then my fever went above 39 and my ProCalcitonin level came 42 ng/ml !!!! I was admitted to Infectious Diseases. And after three days I was back to clinic!!! I know a collague who resigned because attendings didnt allowed him to go home while his father is admitted to hospital with ACS! I also know a female CVS resident whom residency terminated just because she wanted to marry (director didnt want a resident get pregnant and take her nightshifts off)!!! While you become a senior and if resident number is enough you may have more free time. You can use that for foreign country experience, research, nap and anything you want.

Residency is like being a slave. You make what your attendings/director wants. So if you get into one, just lower your expectations. Forget nap, be happy with 3 hours of sleep on a couch 🙂 Also forget to have a full sex and be happy with a fast BJ in the dark corner of ward 🙂
 
scarletgirl777 said:
A slump bad enough that you'd actually take a nap in public? That seems weird unless you are chronically sleep depriving yourself.
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Eh, in American culture it seems weird. Other cultures take a more accommodating view of the circadian rhythm.

I've certainly seen people on siesta, quite publicly, in Texas.
 
It's residency, not pre-school.... im gonna guess your attendings would laugh hysterically if you informed them you needed nap time 😛
Besides, isn't that what coffee is for? 😉
 
oldbearprofessor said:
As an attending, I often nap during noon conferences, including the ones I am giving.
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Sadly the most high yield (densest) conferences are often the ones best suited for sleep. Many residents learn to sleep without snoring, sitting upright, with their eyes wide open. That's the only semi socially accepted time to sleep in residency -- even some attendings are guilty of this. thanks to the invention of power point slides, the lights go down and it's off to sleep for an hour. 🙂
 
mestielest said:
Depending on your seniority in clinic... As a junior resident its nearly impossible to take a nap during residency, sometimes you can not get any sleep at night. While I was junior resident one day I had fainted in OR. Then my fever went above 39 and my ProCalcitonin level came 42 ng/ml !!!! I was admitted to Infectious Diseases. And after three days I was back to clinic!!! I know a collague who resigned because attendings didnt allowed him to go home while his father is admitted to hospital with ACS! I also know a female CVS resident whom residency terminated just because she wanted to marry (director didnt want a resident get pregnant and take her nightshifts off)!!! While you become a senior and if resident number is enough you may have more free time. You can use that for foreign country experience, research, nap and anything you want.

Residency is like being a slave. You make what your attendings/director wants. So if you get into one, just lower your expectations. Forget nap, be happy with 3 hours of sleep on a couch 🙂 Also forget to have a full sex and be happy with a fast BJ in the dark corner of ward 🙂
Click to expand...


Uhhhh........
 
Law2Doc said:
Sadly the most high yield (densest) conferences are often the ones best suited for sleep. Many residents learn to sleep without snoring, sitting upright, with their eyes wide open. That's the only semi socially accepted time to sleep in residency -- even some attendings are guilty of this. thanks to the invention of power point slides, the lights go down and it's off to sleep for an hour. 🙂
Click to expand...
Had a really cool attending who mastered the art of putting his head in his hands while we were at a noon lecture. I followed his lead, but wasn't quite as successful.
 
StarDOc14 said:
It's residency, not pre-school.... im gonna guess your attendings would laugh hysterically if you informed them you needed nap time 😛
Besides, isn't that what coffee is for? 😉
Click to expand...

Wait you mean it's not? Damn I was getting used to sipping my apple juice via sippy cup and coloring books. 🙁
 
mestielest said:
Depending on your seniority in clinic... As a junior resident its nearly impossible to take a nap during residency, sometimes you can not get any sleep at night. While I was junior resident one day I had fainted in OR. Then my fever went above 39 and my ProCalcitonin level came 42 ng/ml !!!! I was admitted to Infectious Diseases. And after three days I was back to clinic!!! I know a collague who resigned because attendings didnt allowed him to go home while his father is admitted to hospital with ACS! I also know a female CVS resident whom residency terminated just because she wanted to marry (director didnt want a resident get pregnant and take her nightshifts off)!!! While you become a senior and if resident number is enough you may have more free time. You can use that for foreign country experience, research, nap and anything you want.

Residency is like being a slave. You make what your attendings/director wants. So if you get into one, just lower your expectations. Forget nap, be happy with 3 hours of sleep on a couch 🙂 Also forget to have a full sex and be happy with a fast BJ in the dark corner of ward 🙂
Click to expand...
:whoa:
 
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