Half-baked idea: med school naps

The NBA has naps down to a science. It's common knowledge that you can't disturb NBA players at 3 PM because they are in a daily pre-game nap session. Supposedly it has to do with certain growth hormones that are upregulated during sleep, so if you take a 3 hr nap and get roughly 2 REM cycles in, you get that much more recovery for weary joints and muscles. I assume it also has to do with the late nights NBA players have to deal with on long road trips and late night games. 

As always, if it makes sense in the NBA, it makes sense in med school. There's research out there that suggests that learning is consolidated into memory during sleep. I know people who take short power naps for about 10-15 minutes to ward off sleepiness, but what if we started taking 3 hr naps in the middle of the day to consolidate some of that studying we did, then continued studying later into the night? You'd consolidate the stuff you learned early in the day, and also have a little bit of an energy boost going into your second study session. It also doubles as the perfect solution to the mid-afternoon 4 PM wall that inevitably leads to zero productivity and lots of internet reading. 

courtesy Ashley Smith

There's also this thing called the "caffeine nap" where you chug a cup of coffee (caffeine takes 20-60 minutes to kick in), then take a quick 20 min nap. Studies show a decreased incidence of simulated driving accidents. It also makes perfect sense, except for the placebo effect. I feel like I get a boost from coffee as soon as I start grinding the beans. I would prefer power nap followed by coffee. 

courtesy Tej

The biggest downside to naps: your boss won't like it. Except, in med school you don't have a traditional boss. That's why being in med school is great. As long as you do the 3 hours or so a day that's mandatory, the rest of the day is entirely up to you to organize. Being a student is the ultimate job to use naps. 

All that said, now I'm really curious to learn if anyone keeps a religious nap schedule.. The 3 hr nap experiment seems intriguing. Also, what about power napping in the 15 mins inbetween classes? So many possibilities. 

see you on the other side,

from ken

enjoy sidenote in 140 characters or less @kensidenotelife.