Wednesday over/unders - deep conversations

So last week's over/under was how many naps you take a week. I'm not exactly sure the voting function is working properly, but either way here are the results:

More nappers than not. Here's the commentary from Sudeep Sunthankar:


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love naps. If for nothing else, I enjoy the bliss of 20-30 minutes of not staring into my 433^rd Netter plate of the day. My thought has always been why bother struggling to keep your eyes open with your head bobbing every five minutes when laying down, even for a little bit, can help improve things dramatically. Plus in all honesty is thirty minutes of studying per day going to make that big of a difference in the long run?  

I'll be the first to admit that sometimes my 20 minute power naps transition into two-hour long slumbers, which end with me releasing a few expletives at how I can't believe this happened again followed by a guilty feeling about wasting the afternoon, but then I'm thankful to be reenergized and can avoid face-planting into another page of notes describing some obscure part of the brain, which I'm not even convinced truly exists. Naps are also a little more crucial for me because I don't really drink coffee or caffeine to stay up, hence the frequency of naps. At this point, I'm just doing it with the hopes that I can optimize my caffeine effect during rotations, because somehow I don't think the residents or attendings I'll be working with will be chill with me telling them that it's 3:30 and I'm going to go nap for a bit.

We've almost completed year one and unfortunately/fortunately (depending on how you see things) we have a minimum of six more years to go. That's a long time. A really long time.  I already feel myself burn out on a weekly basis (typically on Thursday post anatomy lab) so I can only imagine how I'll be able to continue to adapt to it for the years to come, but I'll find a way and so will you. Right now, I use naps to get me through the day/week/block. 

My favorite thing about naps is the control. With the demanding nature of our routines, the majority of time is occupied by the library or required afternoon activities, but when I take a nap it serves as a reminder that I do have some freedom and control over my life. It's important to not let the stress of school overwhelm life and doing things to de-stress (sports, friends, cooking, guest-writing for the trillest blog of all time, reading, performing, naps, etc.) is just as important as spending time attending to the things that are stressful in life. The one thing that I've realized in month eight of medical school is that you have to come first. I'm not saying we should show zero responsibility and hit up the beach all day and wild out on King St. every night, but you should do what makes you happy and naps make me happy. 

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Awesome, thanks Sudeep!

This weeks' over under: do you have over or under a good amount of deep conversations:

- too many deep conversations, I'm tired of them
- just the right amount of deep conversations
- could use more deep conversations

I've always been curious about this question. Mainly, I love having deep conversations, but I don't always want to shove that down other people's throat if they don't like it. 

see you on the other side,

from ken

want to provide your commentary? let me know.