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Jump to Key Points Every doctor knows that medical school and residency are incredibly demanding. “From a medical student standpoint, not only is there classwork during the day but so much at night to prep for — what you’ve learned and what you’re going to learn,” said Eric J. Olson, MD, p rofessor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, and a pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist.
“The other thing is that medicine tends to attract high achievers who are driven and will sacrifice to achieve their dreams…you’ve got class; you’ve got endless studying; and you have a real life.” You may have a family; you may have childcare; you may have other commitments. It’s the classic burning the candle at both ends.
Med students have different ways of handling those grueling demands. But Kendrick Lam, a second-year medical student at Baylor School of Medicine in Houston, doesn’t rely on one of the most common — forgoing sleep in favor of studying more. In fact, he prioritizes sleep regardless of how busy he is.
“I actively try to cut studying off at 10:30 or 11 PM,” said Lam. He knows that cutting back on sleep diminishes returns in terms of memory consolidation. Getting enough sleep helps you lock down information you need to remember in med school.
- Sleep = memory consolidation + glymphatic clearance; supports learning.
- Med trainees: chronic sleep loss ↓ cognition, decision-making, dexterity.
- ≥7 h/day sleep goal; strategic naps may supplement insufficient nocturnal sleep.
- Sleep hygiene: dark, quiet, cool room; limit light, caffeine, alcohol, disruptions.
- Consistent schedule + exercise + bedtime ritual may improve sleep quality.
About Medscape Insights
Medscape continually surveys physicians and other medical professionals about key practice challenges and current issues, creating high-impact analyses. For example, the Medscape Family Physician Mental Health & Well-Being Report 2026 showed that:
- 54% of family physicians surveyed said a good night’s sleep eludes them.
- 12% of doctors in the survey reported using over-the-counter sleep aids.
- Only one quarter of physicians said health and wellness is a priority.
The Need for Sleep
Lam has learned firsthand what research has borne out — that sleep is critical to overall health and wellbeing. It’s also essential for the unique demands of medical education and training. “From a practical standpoint, if I took everything in terms of information that was presented me in 4 years as an undergrad, that same info was presented in 8 weeks of medical school,” said Daniel Slaughter, MD, a double board-certified Austin, Texas-based otolaryngologist and sleep medicine physician.
The ability to absorb, understand, apply, and importantly, remember all that information requires a well-rested brain. “From a mental standpoint, there are two really important processes,” said Slaughter, of Sinus & Snoring Specialists in Austin. “One is glymphatic clearance, which clears out all the metabolites produced by the brain. If you don’t clear them out, they dramatically increase the risk of brain disease.”
Every organ requires these metabolites to be cleared, and the brain’s pulsations during deep sleep clear them. “If we don’t get deep quality restorative sleep, progressing byproducts of metabolites build up, and that build up can create cellular dysfunction in the brain,” said Slaughter.
The second aspect involves memory. During deep sleep, your brain consolidates memories, moving them from short-term to long-term storage. “Memories need to be moved to long-term storage so you can recover them,” added Slaughter. “Unless they are cleared from that short-term memory area, the short-term area is cluttered.” That makes it harder for you to learn and place new information in short-term storage.
“You can think of sleep as crosscutting all organ systems and health concerns,” added Olson, past president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. “It’s fundamental to wellness, and it’s really the third pillar of health. We talk about exercise and nutrition, but sleep is really the third pillar…it’s fundamental to your mood, to your cognitive processing, to your performance during your day, to your immune system, to your hormonal control, to your appetite, to weight control, to blood pressure.”
Solid, quality sleep helps prepare med students for the demands of their days. “If you think about med students or residents who have to process a lot of information, they’re under pressure to perform under high-stakes clinical situations,” said Olson. “They have to be empathetic, and they have to display compassion. All that comes with having adequate sleep. It really is counterproductive to try to incorporate new literature or consolidate new knowledge [without enough sleep]…the decision to be chronically sleep-deprived — even going to bed 1 hour later or getting up an hour earlier — will impair your ability to take in new information and consolidate existing information.”
Sleep deprivation can also impair decision-making and negatively affect dexterity — both fundamental skills for med students, residents, and doctors alike.
Getting Enough and Better-Quality Sleep
If you want to succeed in med school, m ed students must make sleep a priority. In addition, they’ll want to set the stage for the best quality sleep, noted Olson. Whether you’re sleeping during the day, or at night, your room should be dark, quiet, and cool. Minimize disruptions by putting your phone on silent and turning off your pager. Limit light that reaches your retina, which promotes alertness.
Go easy on the alcohol, which can make you sleepy but leads to lower-quality sleep; ideally you want to avoid eating or drinking alcohol 2 hours before bedtime. Caffeine can help you feel alert and reduce fatigue during the day but can be counterproductive if taken too close to bedtime. Working the night shift? Minimize caffeine toward the end of your shift, and wear sunglasses on the way home to prevent the light from hitting your eyes to help set the stage for sleep when you get home.
Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, even on the weekends, and exercising regularly can also help improve the quality of your overall sleep.
Turning Your Brain Off
Being able to “shut everything off” is also important. “I think another challenge for medical students and residents is worry — worry about your patients; about how you’re progressing; and all you have to do,” said Olson. “It’s not just about whether you’re spending enough time in bed but being challenged to turn your mind off…that is another big challenge for folks who are training in medicine to address.”
Lam uses a regular routine to help him slide into sleep. “When I’m winding down, I turn down all the lights and light a candle. I turn everything down and use the orange setting on my phone and decrease the brightness on my laptop,” he said. He also takes a break, like watching a TV show with his roommates, to get out of “study mode” before bed. Having a bedtime ritual helps prepare the mind to switch off.
Napping as an Option
If you don’t get enough sleep at night, n aps can help you meet your sleep requirements. Olson noted that the recommended daily sleep duration goal is 7 hours. Getting those hours in one block is one approach, but the challenge of whether you can fit in a strategically timed nap when you can’t get all your sleep consistently at night is another option for getting enough shuteye. Experiment to see how long a nap works best for you — some people do well with a 10- to 20-minute nap while others can sleep for an hour without getting into deeper stages of sleep where you may feel groggy when you wake up.
Regardless of whether you nap, sleep must be a priority, no matter how busy you are. “You have to fundamentally approach sleep like you would nutrition or exercise or taking care of any other health issues,” said Olson. “You have a responsibility to your patients and the health system you work for to come to work in the best shape possible — to be ‘fit for duty.’” And arguably, if you’re sleep-deprived, you’re not fit for duty.
Keeping sleep a “must-do” can help you navigate med school and residency successfully. “As a med student, there’s always this feeling that there’s always more to learn — more projects, more deadlines, more flashcards,” said Lam. Knowing that sleep can help you retain it all is a secret weapon to success.
The experts cited in this article reported having no relevant disclosures.
Kelly K. James is a freelancer, content manager, and author of The Book That (Almost) Got Me Fired: How I (Barely) Survived a Year in Corporate America. She covers health or wellness, business or career, and psychology topics from her home in the Chicago suburbs.
