Sleep
Neurobiology, Medicine, and Society

Sleep.

My favorite class in undergrad was Sleep: Neurobiology, Medicine, and Society. https://www.coursera.org/learn/sleep. There were a handful of fellows/residents that would sit in on lectures.

I now work in nursing, with a BSN curriculum that only had 12 lectures slides on sleep whatsoever (i.e. sleep apnea bad, older adults wake up earlier, pain and urinary frequency impair sleep). The patient population I see (CVICU), is extremely likely to have OSA. Their other comorbidities are unsurprising-CAD, HTN, Hld, anxiety, obesity, etc. I'm seeing patients late in the game when they need heart transplants, VADs, ECMO, and addressing impaired sleep is not a priority.

This is a passion project of mine, to make nursing more aware of disordered sleep, how to assess for it, and how to promote healthy sleep. I invite anyone with a stake in preventing/managing chronic illness to consider impaired sleep as a principle contributor to poor outcomes, albeit a very modifiable factor.

How much was this subject covered in your med school program?

Great post, thanks for sharing your experiences. If anyone is interested in more of the science behind sleep and exactly WHY it is so important, I'd recommend checking out these two resoureces:

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams - a book by Mathew Walker, PhD focusing in sleep science at Cal Berkeley. The book covers what sleep is, what is going on in your brain and body when you sleep, and how significantly detrimental not getting enough sleep has on how you perform physically and mentally.

A free resource that I'm currently going through is this class from the University of Michigan.

Sleep: Neurobiology, Medicine, and Society

If you're trying to be a more productive person, you should know the science driving how and why sleep is so important!