MD & DO Sleep timing vs sleep length or quality

[arcus]

From the Discussion section....

“During the most intense learning period of their lives, medical students and residents are rarely able to maintain regular sleep schedules due to their high workload and are therefore often sleep-deprived and/or suffer from poor sleep quality (Curcio et al., 2006; Gruber et al., 2010; Lund et al., 2010; Nojomi et al., 2009; Taras & Potts-Datema, 2005). Yet, sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation (Diekelmann & Born, 2010; Rattenborg et al., 2011) and cognitive performance (Van Der Werf et al., 2009). We therefore investigated the sleep and study habits of medical students. The results indicate that only actual sleep timing during the semester and especially during the weeks prior to the exam (average mid-sleep phase extracted from the diaries, MSdiary) significantly influence exam performance, whereas all other factors— chronotype (MSFsc; assessed by the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire), sleep duration and quality, study time, and age—showed no significant correlations.​

“Our study shows that students who kept an earlier sleep-wake schedule during the 2 wks prior to their end-of-semester exam were more likely to achieve better grades. Chronotype (MSFsc) had no association with exam performance. Notably, chronotype and exam performance correlate in German high school graduates (the earlier the better the grade; Randler & Frech, 2006). An association between morning-evening preference and exam performance in university students has already been reported in a study based on a one-time two-page questionnaire (Eliasson & Lettieri, 2010). Since a one-time questionnaire may lead to biased answers (e.g., towards socially acceptable norms), we used detailed daily activity diaries for three 2-wk periods (during the semester, pre-exam, and in the semester break). The fact that sleep timing was the only predictor of performance in our study is remarkable. The amount of time students reported studying, sleep quality, sleep duration, or age would have been reasonable additional candidates, but neither associated with exam performannce (despite large inter-individual differences in study time: 24 min to 8 h; sleep quality: 0 to 10; and sleep duration: 6.2 to 10 h). Early-types are traditionally associated with higher performance (e.g., ‘‘The early bird catches the worm’’)​

Genzel, L. (2013). Sleep timing is more important than sleep length or quality for medical school performance. Chronobiology International., 30(6), 766-771.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.3109/07420528.2012.763132

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[ekmf27050]

So... If I'm interpreting this correctly, they found that going to bed early and getting up early were the only things that positively impacted performance? That's interesting if reliable, particularly if chronotype did not have a significant impact. I would take that to mean that even if you don't like mornings (me), it is to your advantage to get up early when pulling long study days

 

[arcus]

So... If I'm interpreting this correctly, they found that going to bed early and getting up early were the only things that positively impacted performance? That's interesting if reliable, particularly if chronotype did not have a significant impact. I would take that to mean that even if you don't like mornings (me), it is to your advantage to get up early when pulling long study days

as you know it is always best to review the data for yourself in total. I only provided a snippet from the discussion section.

Click the link from your university wifi system, and read the article for yourself. let us know your thoughts therein.

Good stuff.

 

[Osteoth]

Wow did not expect to come here and get that, but hey, very interesting.

 

[jhamaican]

My mom always told me that every 1 hour of sleep before like 10-midnight counts as 2.

Seems like this study supports this.