How to effectively push away the sleep after a work day ?

[deleted1053216]

Asking as an intern I need some guidance whenever I come back from clinic or inpt rotation, I am too tried by the end of day and often find myself sleeping if I get on couch. Is there a way to create an effective study schedule. for instance, we have an ITE coming up in October.

Mind you I am not saying that I want to stay up till 10 or 11 pm, but, at least get a couple hours of studying in? Does anybody get up in the morning and study?

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[BicepsTriceps]

Coffee???

 

[AMEHigh]

Yes I could only study in the morning during residency. Physically and mentally too drained in the evenings. It was worth it to me to wake up early and focus.

 

[rokshana]

Asking as an intern I need some guidance whenever I come back from clinic or inpt rotation, I am too tried by the end of day and often find myself sleeping if I get on couch. Is there a way to create an effective study schedule. for instance, we have an ITE coming up in October.

Mind you I am not saying that I want to stay up till 10 or 11 pm, but, at least get a couple hours of studying in? Does anybody get up in the morning and study?

When inpt, don’t worry so much about studying after...if you can read for 30 mins each day...which includes while on service, you will be doing more than most of your co interns.
When on electives, it will be easier to do more .
“Studying” shifts from the typical sit down and read in residency to more on the go.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Asking as an intern I need some guidance whenever I come back from clinic or inpt rotation, I am too tried by the end of day and often find myself sleeping if I get on couch. Is there a way to create an effective study schedule. for instance, we have an ITE coming up in October.

Mind you I am not saying that I want to stay up till 10 or 11 pm, but, at least get a couple hours of studying in? Does anybody get up in the morning and study?

I mean do your ITEs matter for advancement to the next year or anything in your specialty? If not, better to do terrible on them intern year...then you can show how much progression you've made in all the years after way better than doing really well intern year bc you tried to study so much, then getting a lower score 2nd year and being asked by the PD how you've somehow gotten dumber after a year of residency.

 

[Dr G Oogle]

Honestly the best way to stave off sleep is to get good sleep. Obviously can’t always do that on many rotations but try to pay back your sleep dept whenever you can, make sure you have blackout shades, a very comfortable bedroom and/or mattress with good smells and a good vibe; don’t watch tv in bed, I usually read a book under a bedside light and that makes me sleepy. Keep your phone and any electronics away from your bed, either on other side of the room or better yet out of the room. Invest in an alarm clock. And if you can’t study every day when you’re working crazy hard don’t sweat it, just call it a hard days’ work and chill out in front of the TV. I did obgyn and had one gyn book and one ob book and a basically divided that text by 4 years, that way I had more of a long term goal of reading over a week or a month instead of day to day, so if i missed a day reading it didn’t bother me so much. I don’t know what specialty you’re in but you can pretty much select the seminal text or texts in any specialty and set a goal for just trying to get through that. You’ll inadvertently supplement this stuff with uptodate, articles and guidelines. The goal For reading is basically to pass your boards, ITE, match into fellowship; the actual learning to doctor comes from being a resident and showing up everyday.

 

[MerYangBey]

I recommend doing a 20-30 min workout before hitting the couch. Taking coffee or a reasonable pre-workout a little before so (100 or less of caffeine). Then eating and studying for a bit. The workout always wakes me up after a tiring day. (In the setting of covid a home workout with a couple dumbbells and body weight exercise would do the trick, or a short jog if you’re able. )

I’m buying uworld soon for step 3.I completely didn’t study for our ITE just because the timing of it didn’t line up with access to any question bank. also older residents said not to. Guess we’ll see how much it matters lol.

 

[Dave1980]

Asking as an intern I need some guidance whenever I come back from clinic or inpt rotation, I am too tried by the end of day and often find myself sleeping if I get on couch. Is there a way to create an effective study schedule. for instance, we have an ITE coming up in October.

Mind you I am not saying that I want to stay up till 10 or 11 pm, but, at least get a couple hours of studying in? Does anybody get up in the morning and study?

cocaine, coffee, adderall, exercise,

 

[QuizzicalApe]

Get some flavor of app with good questions (uworld or the like) and do it in your spare time during the day and only worry about home studying when you're on rotation that lets you do it more comfortably.

Alternatively, you're an intern. Just be OK sucking on the ITE. It'll make your results next year look even better.