Defense

Med school is going to kick my ass and I need to be ready! A few weeks ago I decided to start preparing my body's sleep schedule for medical school. For the past year I've been getting up around 7:20, leaving by 8:20 and getting to work by 8:45. But, after getting my class schedule in the mail, I realized I will have to physically be in a classroom, taking notes, and thinking at 8am. So... with one month of summer left, I started getting up at 6am. That lasted exactly four days.

This past Monday, with two weeks to go before school, I started the early morning wake up routine again. And I'm exhausted! This is awful because (a) my dad and mom work an average of 15 hours a day or more in the summer, (b) my husband is out the door by 5:45am on most days, and (c) when I was a teacher I was regularly up by 6 and at work by 7:15.... and now I can't manage to get up at 6am without feeling tired by dinner time.

I'm determined not to press the snooze button or take any naps at all in the next week and a half. My body needs to learn to fall asleep by 11 and get up by 6 - and that's just the way it's going to be!

Then I found an excerpt from a book published by the NIH that lists some misconceptions about sleep:

Misconception 1: Sleep is time for the body in general and the brain specifically to shut down for rest

Sleep is an active process involving specific cues for its regulation. Although there are some modest decreases in metabolic rate, there is no evidence that any major organ or regulatory system in the body shuts down during sleep. Some brain activity, including delta waves, increases dramatically. Also, the endocrine system increases secretion of certain hormones during sleep, such as growth hormone and prolactin. In REM sleep, many parts of the brain are as active as at any time when awake.

Misconception 2: Getting just one hour less sleep per night than needed will not have any effect on daytime functioning

When daily sleep time is less than an individual needs, a "sleep debt" develops. Even relatively modest daily reductions in sleep time (for example, one hour) can accumulate across days to cause a sleep debt. If the debt becomes too great, it can lead to problem sleepiness. Although the individual may not realize his or her sleepiness, the sleep debt can have powerful effects on daytime performance, thinking, and mood.

The biological clock that times and controls a person's sleep/wake cycle will attempt to function according to a normal day/night schedule even when that person tries to change it.

Misconception 3: The body adjusts quickly to different sleep schedules

The biological clock that times and controls a person's sleep/wake cycle will attempt to function according to a normal day/night schedule even when that person tries to change it. Those who work night shifts naturally feel sleepy when nighttime comes. A similar feeling that occurs during travel is known as jet lag. This conflict, set up by trying to be active during the brain's biological nighttime, leads to a decrease in cognitive and motor skills. The biological clock can be reset, but only by appropriately timed cues and even then, by one to two hours per day at best. Problems resulting from a mismatch of this type may be reduced by behaviors such as sleeping in a dark, quiet room, getting exposure to bright light at the right time, and altering eating and exercise patterns. Because humans function best when they sleep at night and act in the daytime, the task for a person who must be active at night is to retrain the biological clock (by light cues).

I'm not drastically changing anything... like trying to stay awake at night and sleep during the day, so I think I'll be ok! But I hope I'm not developing "sleep debt" and my body really is ok with functioning on 7 hours!