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Post by Admin on Dec 12, 2016 14:30:56 GMT -4
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Post by Chetan Singh on Dec 13, 2016 11:56:23 GMT -4
I think this was a fascinating article that was very clearly written by a physician. As students I think we all know about sleep deprivation and how we function (or not function) on less than 6 hours of sleep a night. I never knew about that 1% or so of individuals who function on less sleep, and I wonder if there is something different physiologically about these individuals that we can try to replicate in others. I think the best advice about sleep comes at the end of the article. It is important for us to try to keep a constant bedtime and wake-up time, even on weekends. I know that can be difficult as we all like to socialize and that can keep us up late at night. Keeping caffeine use moderate even if you don’t feel like a nighttime coffee affects us can be difficult as students, but I found that stopping caffeine intake past the early afternoon has helped me and others sleep better. The author also mentions nightcaps, which can interrupt the quality of sleep (though I wish he went into more detail about this.) The mention of screen use at night and the use of blue nights (red light filters, though not mentioned) was notable, and I use apps like f.Lux which I have found highly effective. The author even goes on to mention melatonin, though I wish a bit more about the efficacy and dosing of the supplement was discussed. I have found it effective for sleep as well, and I am glad that he noted its use. I only wish he had made some mention of other sleep medications, as they are widely used (and abused!).
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Post by Hector Rodriguez on Dec 13, 2016 12:59:12 GMT -4
There is a lot to say about the associations with sleep and mental health conditions. I believe there is a lot of connections with someone being mentally sound and the amount of sleep deprivation. It also turns into a society that cares only on working and not enjoying life, which could be said about the individuals in the article who are interested in having little sleep. Why would the army care that soldiers sleep less? Obviously, to make them work longer hours, same to say about hospitals with lower budgets, getting young fresh out of medical school residents to work longer hours for very little pay, to ultimately push them to make numerous mistakes with the lives of patients. As the article states, being sleep deprived is just like being drunk, I don't recommend it, it might not be completely understood why we need to sleep, it is obvious a physiological and safety necessity for human beings to sleep. So get some rest
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Post by Carl Boulos on Dec 13, 2016 19:22:00 GMT -4
Like many of us medical students know, writing an exam on sleep deprivation leads to failures. Sleep deprivation decreases performance, memory, judgement and much more. What stood out to me in the article was "As with drunkenness, one of the first things we lose in sleep deprivation is self awareness" because I remember answering many questions with full confidence that I read that the night before. This is especially problematic for people in the health care field as there is no room for any avoidable error. Many are error of the effect of sleep deprivation on the brain, but i think it also important we realize its potential negative effect on the rest of our organs as less than 6 hours as shown to increase risk of health problems.
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Post by M. Ismail on Dec 14, 2016 9:58:13 GMT -4
The article titled, "How to sleep" published in the Atlantic touched on the age old concept of sleep. I agree with most of its content, as sleep is absolutely, without question a necessity. As the article also mentioned, one of the biggest controversies about sleep is how much sleep is optimal. I've always heard that too little sleep is not healthy neither is too much sleep. The article states, "Most adults function best after seven to nine hours of sleep." Also, consistently getting less than 6 hours of sleep leads to deleterious effects on one's health. In addition, personally, I think the most challenging aspect of sleep in an industrialized society is practicing good sleep hygiene. Many of us (myself included) are guilty of practicing poor sleep hygiene. Late-night snacking, excessive caffeine intake, eating in the bedroom, using cellphones, computers and tablets right before going to bed etc, all of these practices can lead to either getting less hours of sleep or less quality of sleep (i.e less REM sleep). I believe as a society, we need to move towards a culture of practicing I am humanbetter sleep hygiene.
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Post by Varun Kaushal on Dec 14, 2016 17:02:29 GMT -4
Having little sleep at night is something I see at the clinic everyday. If its not the patients struggling from lack of sleep it is the students around me or one of the employees. Some people take pride in how little sleep they need and others crumble and their work starts to struggle. Even in the medical field no one ever thinks of the long term effects of sleep loss. The article brings up how sleep deprivation is linked to heart disease and strokes. I would think with this knowledge and being in the medical field they would try to improve that aspect of a health professional lifestyle. The article continues saying that caffeine consumption has a correlation with heart disease but no hard evidence saying it is the cause of it. I would like to see more research in this because I consume a lot of caffeine.
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Post by Ferhan Saleem on Dec 14, 2016 17:07:57 GMT -4
The concept of polyphasic sleep brought up by the article is quite interesting especially for those that cannot sleep for continuous 7-8 hours due to job expectations. It is more common in the elderly. A study conducted by the US airforce (Caldwell, 2003) found that it is possible to take naps for duration of a minimum of 45 minutes per session and still maintain normal cognitive function as long as those naps totaled 8 hours in a period of 24 hrs. A study by Transport Canada (Rhodes, 2007) found that the naps taken should not be shorter than 10-20 min. Any shorter, they provide little benefit. Personally I have tried bisphasic sleep by dividing my sleep into 2 sessions 4 hours at a time. I felt that I was not refreshed as much as if I slept a total of 8 hrs continuously. Taking shorter naps instead of sleeping for a few hours at a time I felt like was even less refreshing.
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Post by Jeffry Benjamin on Dec 15, 2016 1:15:20 GMT -4
In my own academic career I have had close friends that tried polyphasic sleep cycling. Those people (to my knowledge) had no issues with their grades. they would sleep 3 hours a night and take another nap for 3 hours after classes were done for the day. However, I feel it is important that those students who tried it did not have any athletic affiliations. It was strictly school and sleep for them. So it makes me wonder if polyphasic sleep cycling would be as effect on those that had schedules that were more physically demanding. Another great point that this article brought up was the effect of cell phone lights during bed time. There are apps/software available (that I use myself) that dims the blue light emitted from screens and "warms" the screen with a reddish tint. I have found that having such programs on a set timer is beneficial for me, especially since I, more than often, have trouble going to sleep. These programs along with melatonin have made falling asleep easier for me and I will attest to their efficacy
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Post by Ifunanya Akusoba on Dec 15, 2016 1:45:18 GMT -4
I found that the article "How to Sleep", reiterated what most of us have known about sleep for years. We know how much sleep we should be getting and what we should avoid doing to get the best sleep possible. Unfortunately, it is not always practical, especially during medical school. I do think it is possible to train yourself to sleep less than what we know to be optimal without your work suffering. In fact, it's a must as a resident. One thing I wish this article had touched on is REM sleep rebound- which is the body's way of trying to catch up on REM sleep after a period of sleep deprivation.
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Post by Robert Kim on Dec 15, 2016 14:03:18 GMT -4
After reading this article by Dr. James Hamblin I have reached two general conclusions. First, Finnish men need more sleep than Finnish women. And second, I need to sleep more and I need sleep more than I previously believed. I am an avid and passionate coffee drinker - I have enjoyed, nay, relished a cup of coffee every day for as long as I can remember. But then again my memory could be exhausted from all that adenosine blockade from all that delicious caffeine! I think the Dr. Hamblin does a great job exploring several areas of sleep hygiene where most people could use a change of habit: developing a consistent sleep routine, reducing caffeine, light discipline at night, and easing off the melatonin/supplements. For me, decreasing my coffee intake and reducing nighttime screen-time. I believe Dr. Hamblin's final words of wisdom in this article could change the world: "Remember that even on night mode, a phone is shooting light into your brain. Have sex with someone instead. Or, sometimes preferable, read something on paper."
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Post by Ryan Davies on Dec 15, 2016 17:14:18 GMT -4
When first starting at the clinic, I came to realize the importance of our patients' sleep patterns, hygiene, and quality as we asked time and time again for the details of these habits and saw how poor sleep not only affected but was also a symptom of cognitive and emotional well-being. Dr. Hamblin's comments hinting at sleep studies, and I have to mention the 11-day sleep deprivation science fair study here, were thought provoking and made me consider how lack of sleep can affect general health. I also thought that his points regarding caffeine use and developing appropriate sleep hygiene rather than turning to sleep aids were appropriate in my current situation as a student, when sleep is often the area I will neglect when there is a lot that needs to be accomplished.
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Post by Anthony B on Dec 15, 2016 17:42:37 GMT -4
Le Dormeur du Val, a poem written by Rimbaud during his time with Verlaine that tells the tale of a soldier and the plea for nature to bring him comfort as he sleeps. We spend a third of our lives sleeping. We try to manipulate it as best we can to fit our modern lifestyles, a mode of life that seldom aligns with nature. I remember reading several years ago about the physiology of sleep. I found it interesting that elite athletes, ones that need to perform both physically and psychologically, follow a strict sleeping schedule where they get approximately 8:20 to 8:40 minutes of sleep a night. An amount that was determined as physiologically optimal; an amount I'm sure we all wish we could afford on the quotidian. Now whether your interests coordinate more with Zadig and Voltaire rather than Voltaire, the beauty of sleep has no beholders. I believe the author did a commendable job in approaching the topic of sleep from many angles. Hats off.
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Post by Pavankumar Thota on Dec 16, 2016 0:33:19 GMT -4
One of the things I learned while working in the ER was that the most dangerous time for patients was during the transition from night team staff too morning staff. The reason for this was the number of medical errors would increase during the pass off of patients. I remember the doctor I worked with would always rail against the idea of medical shift work because of these errors. He would tell me continuity of care was paramount and ER doctors should stay until their patient was admitted or discharged. After reading this article, I wonder if the errors caused by sleep deprivation would out weigh the costs associated with passing patients off. On the grand scale of patient care, is a tired doctor worse then a doctor who is fresh but ill informed of the patients status? Continuity of care vs sleep deprivation is a study that I would love to be seen done.
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Post by Ben Greenwood on Dec 16, 2016 11:22:17 GMT -4
This is an interesting article regarding the importance of sleep to our body and mind. The author laid out some important facts about sleep hygiene which may be effective for most people, however, as someone who grew up with multiple family members suffering from sleep disorders, i am acutely aware of our limited understanding of sleep. I have seen several holistic and allopathic approaches to this issue and neither fully address the issue at hand due to a lack of basic understanding of the physiology of sleep. I think it is crucial to remember that being under stress and having trouble sleeping is difficult but there are so many people who are incapable of getting adequate rest every single night of their lives. It is these patients who need us to increase and improve research into the physiology of sleep so that we can better understand the pathology of sleep disorders. Unfortunately, funding for sleep studies is sparse compared with other research projects and there seems to be little incentive for the medical/research community to invest more time in understanding these life altering problems. I believe that understanding these more serious sleep disorders may not only help a patient population who currently has no hope, it will also illuminate methods to improve sleep for everyone.
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Post by Tina Gaskin on Dec 17, 2016 0:13:10 GMT -4
This article regarding "How to Sleep" seems to drive home how sleep Deprivation can affect each person. However, I certainly believe how much sleep a person needs is individualized. Interestingly we recommend patients who have insomnia or sleep disturbance a sleep behavioral program in order for them to develop a healthy sleep pattern but most of us could never adhere to such a program especially if you are a medical student or resident. I also understand it not just medical students or residents who have these bad sleep behaviors. The world around us have placed so much emphasis on success and most of us understand if one wants to be successful you have to be willing to give up a few things maybe SLEEP among other things is one of the sacrifices. As the resident stated in the article he has sometimes worked a straight "36hrs without even taking more than a few minutes break because people were sick." I am sure he has trained his body to deal with the rigors of residency but we all know what happen if you continue to push your with out adequate sleep and nutrition. I believe we owe it to the people who entrust us with their health to be responsible for our own health. If that means asking one of my colleagues to cover my shift for 30 minutes to takes a break that what responsible people do!!!!
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