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Sleep is more important than food

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131–140 of 177 posts

Re: Sleep is more important than food

#131
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even more disconcerting is the sleeping culture/routine throughout medical residency and fellowship; arguably, the most important stages of medical education, where doctors in training learn the hands-on skills to practice medicine. Despite the importance of learning during this stage, individuals are routinely sleep-deprived: "20% of all residents reported sleeping an average of 5 hours or less per night, with 66% a…

I've asked many doctors about this. They insist that they are not effected by sleep deprivation. They claim it is safer to have the same doctor for 24-48 hours rather than hand off a patient to a new, fresh doctor.

I've had a few doctors in my family say the same thing.

Re: Sleep is more important than food

#132

Schools such as Caltech and MIT have rigorous curricula that proverbially requires constant study every day of the week just to stay in the middle of the pack. Naturally, most students cut back on sleep. Proponents of this approach are aware of this, even boast about it, saying that this is the best way to learn the material. On the other hand, numerous studies -- including the link at the top of this page -- conclud…

What Caltech/MIT are encouraging is repetition with continued study. Repetition cements short term memory into long term, ref "Brain Rules" book. In order for this process to work efficiently, good sleep is required. Hence how the 2 are related.

What we humans fail to see is that running out of hours in a day to study (work et al) should not equal to cutting back on sleep. Cutting back on sleep is a quick & dirty approach but has its negatives which the article pointed out. If only we could see our consequences of these actions using some monitoring tool/data I'm certain many folks would be in a better position to balance/optimize their study and sleep patterns.

So, both the article and these schools can be right ;-)

Re: Sleep is more important than food

#133
post #73

I was hoping to see some sleep hacks in the comments here. The author cites a few in the article: 1) Naps 2) Go to bed earlier 3) Start winding down at least 45 minutes before 4) Write down what's on your mind Does anyone here have any other sleep hacks to share?

I think that #4 is extremely important and rarely mentioned. It's much easier to go to bed earlier guilt-free, and to fall asleep once you're there, knowing that you have accounted for ideas-in-progress, you have acknowledged loose ends and unfinished tasks that need to be completed on the following day(s), and that you'll be able to pick up where you left off.

True. It's similar to the advice I've heard to read fiction right before bed instead of non-fiction to ease your mind into rest.

Re: Sleep is more important than food

#134

I was hoping to see some sleep hacks in the comments here. The author cites a few in the article: 1) Naps 2) Go to bed earlier 3) Start winding down at least 45 minutes before 4) Write down what's on your mind Does anyone here have any other sleep hacks to share?

Here are a few more suggestions from a comment in the post:

1) Wake up at the same time every morning. 2) Eat light in the evening, but have a small, low carb/sugar snack before bed. 3) Eat breakfast every day. 4) Drink caffeine before short (less than 25 minute) naps. 5) Ensure your bedroom is as dark as possible at night, and as light as possible when you wake up. 6) Sleep in the cold. 7) Stay away from bright light sources before bed (TVs, computers, bright house lights).

source: http://disq.us/1dlnu0

Re: Sleep is more important than food

#135
post #35

Schools such as Caltech and MIT have rigorous curricula that proverbially requires constant study every day of the week just to stay in the middle of the pack. Naturally, most students cut back on sleep. Proponents of this approach are aware of this, even boast about it, saying that this is the best way to learn the material. On the other hand, numerous studies -- including the link at the top of this page -- conclud…

Even more disconcerting is the sleeping culture/routine throughout medical residency and fellowship; arguably, the most important stages of medical education, where doctors in training learn the hands-on skills to practice medicine. Despite the importance of learning during this stage, individuals are routinely sleep-deprived: "20% of all residents reported sleeping an average of 5 hours or less per night, with 66% a…

It's peculiar that medical residents are systematically sleep deprived but commercial airline pilots cannot fly/work longer than ~8. Most of the time the plane is on auto-pilot, but there's no such thing for zombie residents doing triage at the ER.

Re: Sleep is more important than food

#136
post #35

Schools such as Caltech and MIT have rigorous curricula that proverbially requires constant study every day of the week just to stay in the middle of the pack. Naturally, most students cut back on sleep. Proponents of this approach are aware of this, even boast about it, saying that this is the best way to learn the material. On the other hand, numerous studies -- including the link at the top of this page -- conclud…

Even more disconcerting is the sleeping culture/routine throughout medical residency and fellowship; arguably, the most important stages of medical education, where doctors in training learn the hands-on skills to practice medicine. Despite the importance of learning during this stage, individuals are routinely sleep-deprived: "20% of all residents reported sleeping an average of 5 hours or less per night, with 66% a…

Yeah, the medical training model fosters a culture of working ridiculously long hours and shunning those that don't. As a first year surgical resident it's not uncommon to work 110-hour weeks and anything less than 80 feels like a joke.

And, as other posters have pointed out, this is despite legislation limiting the number of work hours. The fact of the matter is that if you were to actually work to the letter of the law you'd be sneered at, receive poor evaluations, and patients would suffer because there'd be no one around to do the work.

Most programs argue that these hours are necessary to train surgeons since there's not only the usual cognitive side of medicine, but also the technical side of cutting, sewing, etc. That being said, 70% of the hours I put in at the hospital are BS "scut" work which could be automated, streamlined, or passed off to assistants. The actual challenging decision points are few and far between.

Thus, even the 10,000 hour rule--which a lot of programs use to defend their dismal hours--misses the mark completely since, well, the practice isn't focused.

I don't think surgeons are going to be replaced by robots in a significant way for some time, but I would like to see the hands-on part of surgery being performed by techs. A three year, well planned course would be plenty to turn you into a competent operator--as competent as many just-licensed MDs. After all, do you really need 10 years of academic training (four year undergrad, fours of medical school, two years of little operating as a junior resident) to screw bones back together? Why should we expect surgeons to be technically AND intellectually gifted?

Re: Sleep is more important than food

#137
post #35

Schools such as Caltech and MIT have rigorous curricula that proverbially requires constant study every day of the week just to stay in the middle of the pack. Naturally, most students cut back on sleep. Proponents of this approach are aware of this, even boast about it, saying that this is the best way to learn the material. On the other hand, numerous studies -- including the link at the top of this page -- conclud…

Even more disconcerting is the sleeping culture/routine throughout medical residency and fellowship; arguably, the most important stages of medical education, where doctors in training learn the hands-on skills to practice medicine. Despite the importance of learning during this stage, individuals are routinely sleep-deprived: "20% of all residents reported sleeping an average of 5 hours or less per night, with 66% a…

My friend is doing his residency right now. He says they make up their sleep with "power naps" during the day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_nap

I don't have any personal experience with this though.

Re: Sleep is more important than food

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, those schools have cultures that promote such behavior. I was a grad student and TA at Caltech and observed that the undergrads had horrible time management skills. Procrastination and heroic effort at the last minute were the norm. (I'm not specifically picking on Caltech undergrads, BTW. I'm fairly sure this is typical at most schools.)

"Procrastination and heroic effort at the last minute were the norm." This may be true, but there are also plenty of students who work from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to bed and still don't have enough time to get all of their assignments done. The problem is that functionally there isn't really any difference between having a 3.5 GPA and a 2.0 GPA, so at some point most people figure out that w…

Personally I found Dartmouth GPAs correlated to how often you went to class and how much attention you paid to the lecture. If you didn't go or zoned out, you'd be working all day and all night just to catch up on that 1 hour you missed.

Re: Sleep is more important than food

#139
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even more disconcerting is the sleeping culture/routine throughout medical residency and fellowship; arguably, the most important stages of medical education, where doctors in training learn the hands-on skills to practice medicine. Despite the importance of learning during this stage, individuals are routinely sleep-deprived: "20% of all residents reported sleeping an average of 5 hours or less per night, with 66% a…

It's peculiar that medical residents are systematically sleep deprived but commercial airline pilots cannot fly/work longer than ~8. Most of the time the plane is on auto-pilot, but there's no such thing for zombie residents doing triage at the ER.

I'm an airline pilot. Actually, the maximum duty day is 16 hours. The maximum time that may be spent behind the controls is 8 hours. The minimum length overnight is also 8 hours from leaving the airport to showing up again curbside. This means that transportation, food, and hygiene reduces time in the bed to about 6.5 hours, after which it is legal to work a 16 hour day.

We are expecting new duty regulations later this year in response to scientific data on fatigue and the crash of Colgan 3407. Currently the data shows that on a four-day trip we are equivalently drunk with fatigue by the afternoon of day three even with around eight hours of sleep. Most people really need about nine.

Personally, I've never intentionally flown fatigued but I have been surprised by it. By the time I notice I'm fatigued the heading indicator looks like alphanumeric soup and I cannot differentiate 030 from 300 from 330 without the utmost concentration. I tell myself to "THINK, DAMN IT", but that is futile. It is something that cannot be overcome.

Having this experience, there is no way I'd want medical attention from fatigued doctors. Sleep is important for any safety sensitive job. It's always better to error on the side of safety.

Re: Sleep is more important than food

#140
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even more disconcerting is the sleeping culture/routine throughout medical residency and fellowship; arguably, the most important stages of medical education, where doctors in training learn the hands-on skills to practice medicine. Despite the importance of learning during this stage, individuals are routinely sleep-deprived: "20% of all residents reported sleeping an average of 5 hours or less per night, with 66% a…

I've asked many doctors about this. They insist that they are not effected by sleep deprivation. They claim it is safer to have the same doctor for 24-48 hours rather than hand off a patient to a new, fresh doctor.

I've heard this argument from medical residents, too. They say it's important for training to see full 24-hour cycles in a patient's care, and that shorter shifts would make that impossible.
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