I need my sleep.

[MrChance2]

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I thought I would ask as I've always been jealous of the people who sleep 5-6 hours a night and kickass all day.

I'm approaching 30 and was just accepted into medical school. My whole life if I get 6-7 hours I can't do complicated tasks. I can't learn well, I can't think about complex problems, stare at the internet for way longer, etc. If I get 8-9 hours I can work for 12 hours pretty painlessly and function at a high level. If I get 5-6 hours sleep I'm lucky if I can focus on science for more than an hour or 2 before my brain shuts down for the day w/o a nap.

Obviously the solution here is go to bed by 11pm no matter what Sunday-Thurs but I'm wondering if anyone has anything else to say that helps. It seems med schools are filled with the 6 hours = A OK crowd and as I said before I'm massively jealous of you guys..

Working out regularly/eating well does help but it is not a magic bullet for me at least.

 

[NickNaylor]

I'm a grandpa when it comes to sleep. I'm generally in bed before 10 (but usually wake up before 6).

You didn't really ask a question but I get the sense that you're worried about getting enough sleep. During the pre-clinical years you don't have anything to worry about. If you're having to stay up late just to stay on top of your work, you're not doing it right. Third year of course is a whole different ballgame as you don't have much control over your own time, and some rotations will be worse than others.

As far as things that help...

 

[Member 331305]

I thought I would ask as I've been accepted and it is my only major concern.

I'm approaI ching 30 and was just accepted into medical school. My whole life if I get 6-7 hours I can't do complicated tasks. I can't learn well, I can't think about complex problems, stare at the internet for way longer, etc. If I get 8-9 hours I can work for 12 hours pretty painlessly and function at a high level. If I get 5-6 hours sleep I'm lucky if I can focus on science for more than an hour or 2 before my brain shuts down for the day w/o a nap.

Obviously the solution here is go to bed by 11pm no matter what Sunday-Thurs but I'm wondering if anyone has anything else to say that helps. It seems med schools are filled with the 6 hours = A OK crowd and I'm jealous as hell of you guys...

Working out regularly/eating well does help but it is not a magic bullet for me at least.

Maybe the problem isn't the number of hours you're sleeping but the quality of sleep you're getting. Are you sure you are sleeping well throughout the night? Just as an anecdote, I can sleep for 12hours and still wake up feeling beat if I had tossed and turned throughout the night. On the flip side, I can feel energized if I get 6 nonstop hours of good sleep.

 

[Perrotfish]

I thought I would ask as I've always been jealous of the people who sleep 5-6 hours a night and kickass all day.

I'm approaching 30 and was just accepted into medical school. My whole life if I get 6-7 hours I can't do complicated tasks. I can't learn well, I can't think about complex problems, stare at the internet for way longer, etc. If I get 8-9 hours I can work for 12 hours pretty painlessly and function at a high level. If I get 5-6 hours sleep I'm lucky if I can focus on science for more than an hour or 2 before my brain shuts down for the day w/o a nap.

Obviously the solution here is go to bed by 11pm no matter what Sunday-Thurs but I'm wondering if anyone has anything else to say that helps. It seems med schools are filled with the 6 hours = A OK crowd and as I said before I'm massively jealous of you guys..

Working out regularly/eating well does help but it is not a magic bullet for me at least.

For most people, most of medical school is a 60-70 hour a week job. That leaves an easy 8 hours for sleep. A lot of residency is like that too. There are a handful of worse rotations in your third year of medical school, and maybe 50% of your residency rotations will be worse than than, but even a lot of the 80 hour/week residency rotations is set up as 6 13 hour shifts a week, so if you schedule carefully and don't care much about your social life you can still get a lot of sleep in.

When your sleep is going to suffer is call nights: occasionally during your third and fourth year rotations, and then much more commonly in your residency (after internship). You will come into work at 8 a.m. and leave at 10 a.m. the next day. Interns are now forbidden from doing this, but depending on your residency you might be doing that as often as every third night.

I also need my sleep. When I do call I don't learn anything and I make more errors. I stronlgy support the new work hour restrictions because I hate call. But you deal with it if you have to. I figured out a good regimen of scheduled caffeine pills, a protein heavy diet, short power naps, and frequent hydration that keeps me as alert as I'm going to get without actually sleeping. And on those nights I spend down knowledge without any hope of building it up. When the call night ends I go back to learning.

 

[WompyWomperton]

I thought I would ask as I've always been jealous of the people who sleep 5-6 hours a night and kickass all day.

I'm approaching 30 and was just accepted into medical school. My whole life if I get 6-7 hours I can't do complicated tasks. I can't learn well, I can't think about complex problems, stare at the internet for way longer, etc. If I get 8-9 hours I can work for 12 hours pretty painlessly and function at a high level. If I get 5-6 hours sleep I'm lucky if I can focus on science for more than an hour or 2 before my brain shuts down for the day w/o a nap.

Obviously the solution here is go to bed by 11pm no matter what Sunday-Thurs but I'm wondering if anyone has anything else to say that helps. It seems med schools are filled with the 6 hours = A OK crowd and as I said before I'm massively jealous of you guys..

Working out regularly/eating well does help but it is not a magic bullet for me at least.

I'm only 24, but I'm the same way. I'm not worried about pre-clinical so much, but residency makes me a bit nervous. I talked to a guy who said he had routine 30+ hour straight shifts during his internal med residency. I can stay awake that long, but I'm not sure that what my state of mind would be.

 

[passionformed]

I'm only 24, but I'm the same way. I'm not worried about pre-clinical so much, but residency makes me a bit nervous. I talked to a guy who said he had routine 30+ hour straight shifts during his internal med residency. I can stay awake that long, but I'm not sure that what my state of mind would be.

I am much younger than you, and I need a minimum of nine hours of sleep a night. Anything less than nine doesn't work well for me. I am a little worried.

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

I used to have to wake up at 3am for work pretty often when I was younger, but now I've been spoiled with 8-9 hours a sleep a night. I'm going to try to wean myself down to maybe 6 hours a night before med school starts (and stock up on caffeine).

 

[sinombre]

It might get easier for you as you get older... I used to need 8ish hours of sleep and now I'm perfectly fine with 6 and a cup of coffee. I'm a few years younger than you, but I've definitely noticed this change over the past several years.