Sleep question

[pers785]

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Is there anything you can do to "train" your body to function off less hours of sleep? I ask because during undergrad Ive been able to sneak in naps when I come up with the excuse that Im too tired to study, but I feel like those naps are going to be far less frequent in medical school. I kind of wish I could function off of 5-6 hours of sleep (I have some friends who only get this much every night because they chose to). During undergrad, if I didnt get at least 8-9 hours I would feel like I just had no energy and even though Ive heard that first couple years of med school its doable to get 8 hours of sleep every night, I feel like itd be good to develop the ability to function off fewer hours of sleep (if its possible of course). Ive heard of things like taking a 30 minute nap every 4 hours (forgot the name of the technique), but that just sounds ridiculous haha. Any advice?

 

[dutchman]

Even if you somehow adjust, your immunity will take a beating and your skin will age faster. Like I said on another post, you can also expect to loose as much as 20% of your life expectancy if you deprive yourself of sleep for an extended period of time.

 

[Law2Doc]

Is there anything you can do to "train" your body to function off less hours of sleep? I ask because during undergrad Ive been able to sneak in naps when I come up with the excuse that Im too tired to study, but I feel like those naps are going to be far less frequent in medical school. I kind of wish I could function off of 5-6 hours of sleep (I have some friends who only get this much every night because they chose to). During undergrad, if I didnt get at least 8-9 hours I would feel like I just had no energy and even though Ive heard that first couple years of med school its doable to get 8 hours of sleep every night, I feel like itd be good to develop the ability to function off fewer hours of sleep (if its possible of course). Ive heard of things like taking a 30 minute nap every 4 hours (forgot the name of the technique), but that just sounds ridiculous haha. Any advice?

You can function fine on a lot less sleep than you think, and most people in residencies do. You cannot develop this ability, but when you have to go without sleep in med school/residency you will somehow manage. Everyone does. There have been a variety of historically prominent proponents of sleeping in short spurts (eg 30 mins), but they have largely been discredited due to more current understanding of the various stages of sleep.

 

[OncoCaP]

Is part of this low sleep equation = increased caffeine consumption?

I'm not even in med school yet, and I drink more caffeine than I probably should (usually as an energy drink, e.g., Red Bull, so I don't need to go to the bathroom more frequently - maybe it has an ADH effect).

 

[mdc848]

I heard somewhere that if you elevate your feet when you take a nap, 30 minutes of sleep will feel like an hour or something like that. Never tried it myself though. I'm kind of like you because in undergrad I couldn't function without 7-8 hours. Now I've adjusted and I average a little more than 6 hours.

 

[anon-y-mouse]

Even if you somehow adjust, your immunity will take a beating and your skin will age faster. Like I said on another post, you can also expect to loose as much as 20% of your life expectancy if you deprive yourself of sleep for an extended period of time.

Totally agree about the skin thing. It took a week of holidays, rest, water, and proper nourishment to get my skin back to normal... not sleeping or having weird hours takes such a huge toll on your skin.

 

[Dragonsimot]

As for working off no sleep, I just got out of the Navy where I was a SEAL. We would go easily for 2 months in a row with 6hr's of sleep...now that is after being on our feet all day doing tactical training. I would have to say being new (psych stress) and hours of exercise/sleep (physical stess) took its toll on me.

I ended up being majorly depressed over the last 2 years on my time in the Navy. Glad I'm out now, I feel like I'm really coming around out of the depression thing.

So all in all, I would think the med school thing wouldn't be as physically demanding but psych would be more so.. each varies from person to person. Like someone else said, you'll do it if you push yourself to do it. 6hr's is good enough for functionality. Just not fun

 

[Hayden2102]

Is part of this low sleep equation = increased caffeine consumption?

I'm not even in med school yet, and I drink more caffeine than I probably should (usually as an energy drink, e.g., Red Bull, so I don't need to go to the bathroom more frequently - maybe it has an ADH effect).

Don't know how that works, caffeine is a diuretic.

 

[deleted127837]

.

 

[Tired]

Is there anything you can do to "train" your body to function off less hours of sleep? I ask because during undergrad Ive been able to sneak in naps when I come up with the excuse that Im too tired to study, but I feel like those naps are going to be far less frequent in medical school. I kind of wish I could function off of 5-6 hours of sleep (I have some friends who only get this much every night because they chose to). During undergrad, if I didnt get at least 8-9 hours I would feel like I just had no energy and even though Ive heard that first couple years of med school its doable to get 8 hours of sleep every night, I feel like itd be good to develop the ability to function off fewer hours of sleep (if its possible of course). Ive heard of things like taking a 30 minute nap every 4 hours (forgot the name of the technique), but that just sounds ridiculous haha. Any advice?

To specifically answer your question: Yes, 8-9 hours a night for the first two years of med school are extremely doable. Third year, however, it will not be.

Can you train yourself to function off less sleep? No. Read this.

http://www.physorg.com/news76867739.html

"Cynthia LaJambe, a chronobiologist at the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, has conducted sleep research at Penn State and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and has seen the effects of sleep deprivation -- including fatigue, sadness, stress, anger and diminished performance -- first-hand.

"At Walter Reed we were particularly interested in the effects of lack of sleep on soldiers," LaJambe said. "In combat situations, they are often forced to go 36 or 48 hours without sleep. Our tests conducted on soldiers over 72 and 86 hours showed that -- except for the rare individuals who seem genetically able to stay awake longer -- adapting in a short period to less sleep wasn't possible." Researchers still are investigating whether people can adapt better over longer time periods.

In another study, conducted at Walter Reed and the University of Pennsylvania, LaJambe noted, among participants who slept from two to nine hours daily for eight days, those who slept nine hours performed the best on "psychomotor vigilance" tasks, which measure reaction time. Those who slept three hours or less not only had progressively slower reaction times, but did not recover from the effects of sleep deprivation even after several days of sleeping longer hours.

At Penn State, LaJambe's research focus has turned to long-haul trucking. While truck drivers usually get more sleep than soldiers, she noted, they sometimes get only four to five hours sleep per night, compared to the eight hours recommended for healthy adults by the National Sleep Foundation. Tired drivers are at risk not only for falling asleep, LaJambe said, but for what she calls lapses.

A "lapse," as LaJambe described it, is a momentary shutdown of the prefrontal cortex causing a person to be temporarily unable to respond to stimuli -- in the case of driving, unable to operate the vehicle. After a lapse, a person often feels as though they have been momentarily asleep, although technically they have not been. Such incidents are more common than actually falling asleep, LaJambe said, and are particularly dangerous, "because even though people might think they can fight off dozing, this is something outside their control." The level of impairment caused by sleep deprivation can be equivalent to that caused by drunkenness, she added.

College students often experience lapses when pulling "all nighters" during exam periods. New parents, too, quickly come to know the effects of significantly reduced sleep. To avoid dozing off, or just to make more time for work, some people have tried a radical alternative. Polyphasic, or Da Vinci, sleep (so named for the great Renaissance master, who purportedly slept very little, in very short spurts), requires 15-20 minute naps every couple of hours, totaling between two and five hours of sleep per day.

Such fragmented sleep patterns inevitably take a toll on alertness, LaJambe said. "Some people think they are adapting to being awake more, but are actually performing at a lower level. They don't realize it because the functional decline happens so gradually."

In the short term, for those who have no choice but to stay awake, she said, "a short nap and a moderate amount of caffeine, like a cup of coffee, is still the best approach." But those naps should be kept under 20 minutes, LaJambe advised. "Otherwise, sleep inertia sets in, and you'll be groggy when you wake up."

"In the end," she noted, "there is no denying the effects of sleep deprivation. And training the body to sleep less is not a viable option." Nothing matches a good night's sleep."

 

[OncoCaP]

It's usually the mental focus that offsets having to go to the bathroom, induced by you psychologically believing in the magical powers of caffeinated drinks. If you have no faith in them, you'll probably just get tired and jittery (which keeps you awake), then have to go to the bathroom due to the water consumption you'll probably go through to offset all the other crap they put in those things.

Err, no. I would be surprised if mental focus improvement was behind a perceived anti-diuretic effect and it has nothing to do with faith. In fact, if anything, I expected a diuretic effect from Red Bull and observed the opposite of my expectations (and the reported effects of caffeine & taurine). I just realized all of sudden, hey, why don't I feel the need to go to the bathroom like when I'm drinking coffee? Have you tried Red Bull? Did you experience a diuretic effect similar to a cup of coffee? What about caffeine jitters? The main big plus for me is that it doesn't bother my stomach like coffee does for some reason.

I looked up Red Bull on Wikipedia. The caffeine in a can of Red Bull is actually less than that in a "tall" (12 oz) Starbucks cup of coffee, which probably could explain the reduced diuretic effect if it wasn't for the diuretic effect of Taurine. Red Bull has glucuronolactone, which is reported to improve concentration and memory. Perhaps the beneficial effects relative to coffee (less diuretic effect, improved concentration & memory) are due to reduced caffeine and the addition of other substances (taurine, glucuronolactone) that more than make up for the lost caffeine and have other positive effects.

I don't understand the CNS and physiology well enough to sort out the effect of taurine. Maybe someone can decipher the CNS effect below and confirm that it would make one less jittery than just drinking coffee (caffeine) instead. Taurine is reported to reduce blood pressure, so maybe that is a issue.

http://ec.europa.eu/food/fs/sc/scf/out169_en.pdf
Central nervous system
Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant whereas taurine generally act as an inhibitory neuromodulator. Caffeine exerts stimulatory effects by blocking the inhibitory action of adenosine at its binding sites, with subsequent increases in the levels in some brain regions of several neurotransmitters, including adrenaline, noradrenaline, tryptophan and dopamine (Schlosberg, 1984; Hadfield and Milio, 1989; Kirch et al.,
1990; Hughes 1996; Dager et al., 1999; Schuckit, 2000). It also modulates the effects of GABA and serotonin (Kaplan et al., 1992; Nehlig, 1999). Taurine, on the other hand, depresses the activity of excitable membranes in the brain (Iida and Hikichi, 1976; Huxtable, 1992). Centrally, taurine acts as an agonist of the more sedating glycine receptors and inhibits the more excitatory actions of NMDA receptors and glycine neurotransmitter function (De Saint et al., 2001; Font et al., 2001). It therefore could modulate the excitatory actions of some other amino acids (Saransaari and Oja, 1999,
2000).

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=6893269
The effect of taurine on the development of atherosclerotic lesions in rabbits maintained on a 2% cholesterol diet for a 14 week period has been examined. Taurine administered in the drinking water reduced thoracic aorta involvement. Taurine had no significant effect on serum or tissue cholesterol, calcium triglyceride or phospholipid concentrations. Nevertheless 0.2% taurine caused an increase in dP/dt[max] (measured from the systemic blood pressure) and 0.5% lowered systemic blood pressure. The anti-atherosclerotic effects of taurine appear to be unrelated to a fall in blood pressure.

 

[8744]

So basicly we're in a job that requires us to abuse stimulants to stay sharp.

Lovely.

 

[OncoCaP]

So basicly we're in a job that requires us to abuse stimulants to stay sharp.

Lovely.

Maybe the job doesn't require it, but ...

 

[Law2Doc]

So basicly we're in a job that requires us to abuse stimulants to stay sharp.

Lovely.

No different than any other hour intense field. You will find coffee drinkers in every profession or trade.

 

[Esteban24]

I believe you can train your body to function on only a few hours of sleep a night. Thomas Edison was rumored to have trained himself to only sleep for 3-4 hours a night throughout his entire adult life. Not that I'm advocating that...

 

[Tired]

I believe you can train your body to function on only a few hours of sleep a night. Thomas Edison was rumored to have trained himself to only sleep for 3-4 hours a night throughout his entire adult life. Not that I'm advocating that...

You gotta love this. I spend all that time hunting down information on how you can't train your body to need less sleep, and even find an article quoting the very researchers who look at this stuff.

However, Esteban24 disagrees. Perhaps we could set up a debate between world-renowned sleep researchers from Walter Reed, and "Esteban24".

 

[Esteban24]

Here's an article that does a good job of explaining the effects of going without sleep for a long time and whether regular sleep as we know it will even be necessary in the future. And yeah, the author of it is well qualified, in case you were wondering.
😴
http://www.provigilweb.org/q1.htm

 

[OncoCaP]

Here's an article that does a good job of explaining the effects of going without sleep for a long time and whether regular sleep as we know it will even be necessary in the future. And yeah, the author of it is well qualified, in case you were wondering.
😴
http://www.provigilweb.org/q1.htm

This is effectively a drug advertisement. This is not an objective source for information on sleep or anything else. This information has one purpose: to increase sales of Provigil. While I'm glad that there are medications like this, it doesn't look promising as a sleep substitute as far as I can tell.

http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=20717&name=PROVIGIL (look toward the bottom for bad experiences)

However, in fairness, there are a number of people (international travelers, and maybe even physicians working odd hours) who use Ambien to sleep and Provigil to wake up and I guess it works well for them .... ~90% of Provigil prescriptions are off-label.

 

[Tired]

[/B]

Here's an article that does a good job of explaining the effects of going without sleep for a long time and whether regular sleep as we know it will even be necessary in the future. And yeah, the author of it is well qualified, in case you were wondering.

Here is why you are either a drug rep trying to push a crappy off-label use of Provigil, or you are a pre-med who fundamentally misunderstands the nature of drug company advertising and scientific investigation.

1) This is a drug company paper discussing potential, untested uses of Provigil that are not FDA approved.

2) This paper is encouraging the use of a narcolepsy drug for what is essentially "performance enhancing" purposes. This is grossly irresponsible and inappropriate. It is the equivalent of advertising adderall for better study habits. Does it probably work? Yes. Should any responsible physician prescribe it to a patient for these purposes? Absolutely not.

3) The author is well qualified? How do you know? The paper contains zero information about the author, and there is no MD or PhD after his name. Is this you? Do you work for this company?

4) There is no discussion of randomized controlled trials in humans using this drug. Such data is essential to adequately assess the use of such drugs for various purposes.

And finally, in case you forgot, you argued that people can be trained to need less sleep. Nothing in this article addresses that question.

I call troll on Esteban24.

 

[ssingh0]

wasn't there a study not too long ago that reported adults who sleep around 6 hours live longest?

 

[ssingh0]

ncreased Death Rate Associated
With Sleeping 8 Hours or More

Although it’s a common belief that 8 hours of sleep is required for optimal health, a six-year study of more than one million adults ages 30 to 102 has shown that people who get only 6 to 7 hours a night have a lower death rate. Individuals who sleep 8 hours or more, or less than 4 hours a night, were shown to have a significantly increased death rate compared to those who averaged 6 to 7 hours.

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and the American Cancer Society collaborated on the study, which appeared in the February 15, 2002 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, a journal of the American Medical Association.

Although the data indicated the highest mortality rates with long-duration sleep, the study could not explain the causes or reasons for this association.

Daniel F. Kripke, M.D., in his sleep lab at UCSD.

First author Daniel F. Kripke, M.D., a UCSD professor of psychiatry who specializes in sleep research, said “we don’t know if long sleep periods lead to death. Additional studies are needed to determine if setting your alarm clock earlier will actually improve your health.”

But, he added “individuals who now average 6.5 hours of sleep a night, can be reassured that this is a safe amount of sleep. From a health standpoint, there is no reason to sleep longer.”

Kripke is also a member of UCSD's Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging.

The study, which addressed sleep issues as part of the Cancer Prevention Study II (CPSII) of the American Cancer Society, also indicated that participants who reported occasional bouts of insomnia did not have an increased mortality rate, but those individuals who took sleeping pills were more likely to die sooner.

“Insomnia is not synonymous with short sleep,” the authors said in the article. “Patients commonly complain of insomnia when their sleep durations are well within the range of people without sleep symptoms.”

They added that physicians believe most patient complaints about “insomnia” are actually related to depression, rather than a diagnosis of insomnia.

With 1.1 million participants, this was the first large-scale population study of sleep to also take into consideration variables such as age, diet, exercise, previous health problems, and risk factors such as smoking, in comparing longevity among the participants. In other words, individuals with specific characteristics were compared with individuals of a similar age, health background, etc.

Although the study was conducted from 1982-88, the sleep results have not been available until recently due to the length of time required to input and analyze the vast amount and variety of data from the 1.1 million participants.

“Previous sleep studies have indicated that both short- and long-duration sleep had higher mortality rates,” Kripke said. “However, none of those studies were large enough to distinguish the difference between 7 and 8 hours a night, until now.”

The figures above indicate hours of sleep for men (left) and women (right). The hazard ratio, the top bar graph, indicates the mortality risk while the bottom graph shows the percentage of subjects associated with the reported number of hours sleep.

The best survival rates were found among those who slept 7 hours per night. The study showed that a group sleeping 8 hours were 12 percent more likely to die within the six-year period than those sleeping 7 hours, other factors being equal. Even those with as little as 5 hours sleep lived longer than participants with 8 hours or more per night.

The mean age for women in the study was 57, while the mean age for men was 58. Within the six year period, 5.1 percent of the women had died and 9.4 percent of the men. The causes of death resembled the distribution for the general population.

Additional authors of the study were Lawrence Garfinkel, M.A., the American Cancer Society, New York; Deborah L. Wingard, Ph.D. and Melville R. Klauber, Ph.D., UCSD Department of Family and Preventive Medicine; and Matthew R. Marler, Ph.D., UCSD Department of Psychiatry.

Data came from the American Cancer Society with analysis supported by the National Institutes of Health.

 

[dutchman]

ncreased Death Rate Associated
With Sleeping 8 Hours or More

Although it’s a common belief that 8 hours of sleep is required for optimal health, a six-year study of more than one million adults ages 30 to 102 has shown that people who get only 6 to 7 hours a night have a lower death rate. Individuals who sleep 8 hours or more, or less than 4 hours a night, were shown to have a significantly increased death rate compared to those who averaged 6 to 7 hours.

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and the American Cancer Society collaborated on the study, which appeared in the February 15, 2002 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, a journal of the American Medical Association.

Although the data indicated the highest mortality rates with long-duration sleep, the study could not explain the causes or reasons for this association.

Daniel F. Kripke, M.D., in his sleep lab at UCSD.

First author Daniel F. Kripke, M.D., a UCSD professor of psychiatry who specializes in sleep research, said “we don’t know if long sleep periods lead to death. Additional studies are needed to determine if setting your alarm clock earlier will actually improve your health.”

But, he added “individuals who now average 6.5 hours of sleep a night, can be reassured that this is a safe amount of sleep. From a health standpoint, there is no reason to sleep longer.”

Kripke is also a member of UCSD's Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging.

The study, which addressed sleep issues as part of the Cancer Prevention Study II (CPSII) of the American Cancer Society, also indicated that participants who reported occasional bouts of insomnia did not have an increased mortality rate, but those individuals who took sleeping pills were more likely to die sooner.

“Insomnia is not synonymous with short sleep,” the authors said in the article. “Patients commonly complain of insomnia when their sleep durations are well within the range of people without sleep symptoms.”

They added that physicians believe most patient complaints about “insomnia” are actually related to depression, rather than a diagnosis of insomnia.

With 1.1 million participants, this was the first large-scale population study of sleep to also take into consideration variables such as age, diet, exercise, previous health problems, and risk factors such as smoking, in comparing longevity among the participants. In other words, individuals with specific characteristics were compared with individuals of a similar age, health background, etc.

Although the study was conducted from 1982-88, the sleep results have not been available until recently due to the length of time required to input and analyze the vast amount and variety of data from the 1.1 million participants.

“Previous sleep studies have indicated that both short- and long-duration sleep had higher mortality rates,” Kripke said. “However, none of those studies were large enough to distinguish the difference between 7 and 8 hours a night, until now.”

The figures above indicate hours of sleep for men (left) and women (right). The hazard ratio, the top bar graph, indicates the mortality risk while the bottom graph shows the percentage of subjects associated with the reported number of hours sleep.

The best survival rates were found among those who slept 7 hours per night. The study showed that a group sleeping 8 hours were 12 percent more likely to die within the six-year period than those sleeping 7 hours, other factors being equal. Even those with as little as 5 hours sleep lived longer than participants with 8 hours or more per night.

The mean age for women in the study was 57, while the mean age for men was 58. Within the six year period, 5.1 percent of the women had died and 9.4 percent of the men. The causes of death resembled the distribution for the general population.

Additional authors of the study were Lawrence Garfinkel, M.A., the American Cancer Society, New York; Deborah L. Wingard, Ph.D. and Melville R. Klauber, Ph.D., UCSD Department of Family and Preventive Medicine; and Matthew R. Marler, Ph.D., UCSD Department of Psychiatry.

Data came from the American Cancer Society with analysis supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Too much(>10) or too little(<6 hours) sleep affect mortality in about the same way from what I have heard.

 

[ssingh0]

yah but people here are saying 6 hours, not less than 6.

if I didnt get at least 8-9 hours I would feel like I just had no energy

I'm kind of like you because in undergrad I couldn't function without 7-8 hours. Now I've adjusted and I average a little more than 6 hours.

 

[akpete]

Too much(>10) or too little(<6 hours) sleep affect mortality in about the same way from what I have heard.

I'm screwed then. I'm tired if I don't get 10 every night. If I get less than that, I end up crashing at some point. I won't hear the alarm and will sleep for ~12 hours instead.

I brought this up at my latest doctor appointment. She told me that essentially I'm on the higher end of normal, and nothing can be done.

Then she told me 3rd year's gonna suck (duh), and I'll probably get sick a lot. Great. Thanks for the help.

 

[MDstudent79]

This will work during the first two years at least...not necessarily during rotations I would assume.

Focus not so much on getting to bed at the same time every night (just go to bed when you're tired...or when it's possible if you absolutely have to cram for some exam). Then ALWAYS (at least during the week) get up at 5, 6, or whatever hour you need to get the amount of work done. You'll end up getting less sleep, but if you just take some caffeine in toward the end of the evening, you'll likely still be able to stay up to a decent hour and won't be too worse off for it.

That said, I tend to get about 5 1/2-6 hours sleep each night but find I have to crash for a couple-hour nap by Friday or Saturday. Below about 4 1/2hours, though, and I definitely feel like crap the next day.

 

[Tired]

Then she told me 3rd year's gonna suck (duh), and I'll probably get sick a lot. Great. Thanks for the help.

Instead of asking your doctor, you should have just posted on SDN. Then you could have 25 people all going, "It'll be fine. You can do it!" That way you could feel better about yourself.

 

[gostudy]

Why do people automatically assume that it's impossible to get a full night's sleep in med school? With the exception maybe of 3rd year, getting 8hrs of sleep a night is very achievable in med school if you schedule your time right.

 

[Hayden2102]

I didn't read the entirety of that article, but maybe the mortality rate associated with people who have increased hours of sleep is related to other things, like perhaps the people who sleep around 6 hours a night collectively lead a more active, healthy lifestyle?

 

[akpete]

Instead of asking your doctor, you should have just posted on SDN. Then you could have 25 people all going, "It'll be fine. You can do it!" That way you could feel better about yourself.

Thanks for the tip. I'll keep that in mind next time. 👎

 

[ChiGiVara]

Ive heard of things like taking a 30 minute nap every 4 hours (forgot the name of the technique), but that just sounds ridiculous haha.

Such technics indeed is, its Russian scout Stirlitz has thought up. Its essence that the normal dream of the person consists of two phases - a "fast" and "slow" dream. At "fast" the person sees dreams, there is a storing of all seen for a day, self-updating of all systems of an organism. If to accustom itself to pass at once in this phase of a dream then 30 minutes for intellectual rest of an organism will suffice. And you will feel again vigorous. It is just necessary to train to fall asleep and at once to see dreams.😉

 

[stargirl50]

It's a little late now, but I had to add this in here-- Provigil IS FDA approved for shift work sleep disorder (people who have problems related to working overnight shifts). Not that this applies to med students IMO, but I wouldn't call this use of the drug performance enhancing, irresponsible or inappropriate.

My experience so far: there's no reason you can't get 8 hrs of sleep at any point during the first two years of med school with minimal time management skills.

 

[surferdude123]

for staying awake, studying. I've found a little bit of Phenylephrine helps, or some Ephedrine....but only in small doses...and not often.


I did this for my undergrad and was wired all night, slept and then wrote the exams...and I managed a gpa of 3.89. enough to get me into med school.


I've always been one who needs sleep....so as for napping....they say 30min to 45 minute naps throughout the day, and attempting to get 6-9 hrs per night is sufficient, but ideally I like to get 8-9hrs.

you just gotta do what you gotta do to get sleep, at what point do you sacrifice your health? I don't know..

just some thoughts!

 

[shivasHeroLike]

Why do people automatically assume that it's impossible to get a full night's sleep in med school? With the exception maybe of 3rd year, getting 8hrs of sleep a night is very achievable in med school if you schedule your time right.

yes i agree. its very easy to get an adequate amount of sleep.

sleep is very important. don't try to figure out ways to deprive yourself of it, make a balanced schedule.

 

[BrownShuga]

Why do people automatically assume that it's impossible to get a full night's sleep in med school? With the exception maybe of 3rd year, getting 8hrs of sleep a night is very achievable in med school if you schedule your time right.

as for me 8hrs of sleep Is a Most 😴, if i have the choice to or even if i dont( i usualycompromiseother things Just TO SLeep 😛 ) ,, coz if i didnt get my 8hrs,, i look & feel like a Ghost the Next DAy,, and
i found out that after a GOod Ni8 sleep every thing is acheivalble!!

 

[bottles999]

One other affect that I have hard only briefly touched on is sleeps relation to memory. My understanding is that sleep is critical for the conversion of Short-term memory into Long-term memory via long-term potentiation. Apparently, the brain uses this to write a permanant record of what the previous days did. As one way of looking at it. So the joke was "to learn more.... Go take a nap". (more than a nap, but ya know what I mean)