Taking The Sleep Medicine Board Examination On 2 Hours Sleep

October 28, 2011

After months of studying, I finally took my sleep medicine board examination yesterday. I felt well-prepared for this 4-part, 8 hour test. But one thing that always seems to happen to me before every major exam is that I suffer from severe insomnia. The same thing happened to me before my SAT, MCAT, and otolaryngology board exams.

The night before this test, I went to bed at my normal 10:30 PM time, but was unable to fall asleep unto about 4AM! What made it worse was that my mind was filled with thoughts of studies showing memory loss and poor recall  in sleep-deprived individuals. Imagine a sleep doctor having major sleep problems before a major sleep test. This temporary, stress-induced insomnia is called adjustment (or acute) insomnia as defined by the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (Second Edition). Fortunately, it goes away once the stressor resolves.

I got a refreshing 8 hours of sleep last night, and now with the test over, I can get back to a normal life again. 

Written by Steven Park · Filed Under Blog 
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3 Responses to “Taking The Sleep Medicine Board Examination On 2 Hours Sleep”

  1. Hunter Hearn on October 29th, 2011 2:42 pm

    Congratulations on finishing the boards. ENT’s must take their boards early because mine is November 10th.

  2. Steven Park on October 29th, 2011 2:55 pm

    Thanks. I think the date was a matter of testing site availability. It was a fair and relatively straight-forward exam. Good luck.

  3. J Patel on November 2nd, 2011 12:39 pm

    I am glad to hear the test was fair and not too difficult because I am taking the exam on the 10th also

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