Parcho, MD

I have an uncanny ability to sleep through lectures.

But it’s a trait that didn’t develop until medical school. Perhaps a cure for my lecture narcolepsy would have helped my GPA through the basic science years. Perhaps not.

But maybe I’m kidding myself. Maybe I slept through college classes too? I can’t seem to remember having that much difficulty staying awake in my “History of Baseball” course though, so I’ll assume for now that the change was induced by the rise in tuition.

For examaple, I think I never slept through high school classes. Those very virtually free. College cost a bit of money although scholarships covered just about every expense. I guess I dozed off in a few classes here or there–certainly more than high school. Sleeping through medical school lectures on the other hand was an almost daily affair. I had some tuition expenses covered by scholarship, but the majority of my funding came from loans (i.e. I’m paying for it, dammit).

Clearly there is an inverse relationship between the amount of time spent sleeping in class to the cost of said class.

Some would argue that such a tendency to doze through lectures is counter-productive to one’s education. On some levels that is true. But I take another view. You see, with the expenses of medical school comes extreme amounts of stress. Ya know–kinda like buying your first house. Every time you see a bill your pulse jumps to 120. At least with a house you build equity. The same can’t be said for an M.D.

But one of the best ways to cope with stress is proper rest. So by napping during pathology lectures I was doing my body a favor. I was avoiding burnout.

Makes sense, no?