Physicians learn early in their training that healthy behavior doesn’t pertain to them. If you want to make it through training, you regularly have to work through the night, read until your eyes bleed, and skip meals.
Doctors are supposed to be superhuman. We rarely take time off during the 3-7 years of training (“Illness doesn’t take a Holiday”). Vacations are rare because they put extra stress on fellow residents, who are left to do the same amount of work with fewer hands.
Over the last 10 years the safety factor for patients has been highlighted. Doctors in training make more mistakes when tired than when well rested. But, the health of the training doctor is often overlooked.
I am conflicted in my thoughts. Watching patients over an extended period of time is invaluable experience for a doctor. Training as a doctor is essentially learning pattern recognition. Reading it in a book is not adequate. The experience is essential. But this valuable experience often comes with an extreme lack of sleep that can lead to dangerous mistakes
With this in mind, here are a few tips for doctors (and other adults) to get the best sleep possible.
- Strive for 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night, at a routine time every night
- Sleep in a quiet, dark room
- Avoid exposure to light a few hours before going to sleep (falling asleep to the T.V. is a bad habit)
- Exercise early in the day
- Avoid caffeine and sugar within 3 hours of bedtime
Sleep is essential for health as well as the learning process. We need to balance the learning experience with an adequate amount of sleep that allows doctors (and those in training) to be at the top of their game.