As junior doctors vote on striking over the new contract proposed for them by the government, sleep has become a political issue. While tiredness causes slip-ups at work, the right kind of rest is also crucial: learning is consolidated during dreaming sleep, when the body is taken ‘offline’ and the brain can run through what it has done that day. Our dream cycles increase in length from five to 40 minutes as we doze.
This means junior doctors can practise procedures they have just learned without bloody consequences. A particular nucleus stops us from acting out our dreams, preventing hundreds of scalpel-wielding sleepwalking junior doctors from wandering around at night. Experiments have been done on cats where this nucleus is removed, and they begin running and fighting in their sleep.
The less you dream, the harder it becomes to recall new procedures the next day. This isn’t the only type of ‘practice’ needed – doing things in a realistic context and under pressure is also very important for learning – but it’s definitely worth bearing in mind before the ballot closes on Wednesday.
Dr Daniel Glaser is director of Science Gallery at King’s College London
