With all the stress and strain in a medical student lives, it can be difficult to have a good night’s sleep. We have a lot going on, especially with school or work, and it can be hard to quiet our minds enough to rest. This is something that seems to vary depending on what rotation my wife is in, and how strenuous the work.
Personally, I don’t usually have many issues falling and staying asleep. I tend to rest my head upon my pillow, and be asleep within 10 minutes. I tend to take some time to reflect on my day and relax before heading to bed as well. I may be a weirdo, but I prefer to shower before bed, and not in the morning. It seems that a lot of people I have met prefer to shower in the morning because it wakes them up and preps them for the day. I have noticed that it has been a bad idea to fall asleep on the couch, then take a shower and try to fall asleep in bed. This tends to result in a long period of time awake staring at the inside of my eyelids. It must be that I was asleep, then interrupted it and tried again. I prefer to prep for bed about 30-60 minutes before I want to fall asleep. This gives time for my body and mind to slow down, and my nightly routine not to interfere with my sleeping schedule. This doesn’t always pan out when I am working on projects, but I try to stick to it.
I try to stay on a nightly schedule to create some consistency to my day. I like to set alarms for things that I need to do so that I don’t get too caught up in my work. This helps to get started on my routine so I’m not late to bed late. This is something that my friends have noticed and choose to point out every time my alarms go off. They mean well, and I also think it’s funny that they know my alarms as well as I do. I try to use my schedule to influence my wife as well, pointing out when it is time for her to stop working or watching TV so we can get to bed.
My wife’s experience with good sleep is a different story than mine. She tends to have some issue falling asleep, and it seems a majority of the reason is due to her high brain activity when climbing in bed. She uses her brain so much during the day that it can’t tell when the day is over. This causes her to have a hard time getting her mind to stop running. This seems to be a common issue among people that live busy and hectic lives. It can be hard for her to slow what she is doing and let herself relax.
Some things that she does to relax may be taking a walk, reading a book, or listening to music. I’m not sure how positively influential smart phones are on our sleep habits, but it seems best not to play on them while in bed. She tends to need more time to relax before falling asleep when doing so. It seems to be more important what time she gets in bed, and not as much how long it takes to fall asleep. As an example, if it takes 30 minutes to fall asleep but she gets in bed at 8:00 pm, it’s not a big deal. If instead of 8:00 pm it were 11:00 pm, that’s different and not going to be beneficial. Not everyone can fall asleep right when their head hits the pillow, which is okay. It can be beneficial to find ways to relax and prep for bed so that you can rest properly. If you can find what makes you tired, maybe you can get adequate sleep.
Some Sleep Influences
Following is a list of influences that I have noticed affect my wife’s sleep. They don’t cause her issues every night, but they do on occasion. It can be hard to stick to healthy living and a schedule, especially with how busy our lives have been during medical school.
- Stress from working in the hospital. Patient stress and stress caused by the environment.
- Continuous thoughts about tomorrow. Not only negative thoughts, but positive thoughts as well.
- Poor diet, especially in the evening. This is usually remedied by having a good meal early in the evening.
- Tense muscles, this is usually remedied by a massage. This is a continuous issue. This tends to make her toss and turn a lot, which interrupts sleep.
- Brain seems tired but body is not. This seems to be common as well, especially when she spends a lot of time studying and not moving.
Getting good sleep can be difficult when your days are stressed. It seems that if a person did a bunch of things in a day, it would cause them to be tired enough to fall asleep. This doesn’t seem to be the case. Proper sleep can make your days much more productive and enjoyable. Hopefully you can find some productive, healthy, and beneficial outlets for stress and worry to allow yourself to get proper rest.