How to prepare for career in sleep med as a student?

[med007]

Hi,

I'm currently in the middle of my med school application process. I know it's a little on the early side to be thinking about fellowships and such, but I was just wondering what, if anything, you would suggest to med students interested in pursuing sleep medicine other than preparing for and completing residency in one of the appropriate fields (ENT, family med, IM, pulm/cc, peds, psych/neuro, etc.). I have a strong research background and am currently finishing a masters is cell biology, though I'm sure it's not the most helpful segue into sleep medicine.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

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[neurologist]

Rule #1: Don't go in to med school all set to "go into _____________ (fill in the blank)." Chances are you will change your mind. And you can get to sleep med from a very broad array of initial specialties (IM, psych, neuro, pulm, ENT, etc) so you have a lot of options to explore.

Now that that's out of the way, once you get to med school, I'd just track down whoever does sleep med there and establish a rapport with them. Many med schools assign a faculty advisor and maybe you could request a sleep doc.

Don't write off your background in cell bio relating to sleep med. There is actually a lot of neat cellular-level research going on in chronobiology; in fact, the basic science in that field has pretty much outstripped the clinical ability to treat, so "bench to bedside" translation is particularly needed. Your masters program contacts may have contacts at some med schools that you can get in touch with if you're interested. Are you planning on an MD/PhD?

 

[med007]

Rule #1: Don't go in to med school all set to "go into _____________ (fill in the blank)." Chances are you will change your mind. And you can get to sleep med from a very broad array of initial specialties (IM, psych, neuro, pulm, ENT, etc) so you have a lot of options to explore.

Now that that's out of the way, once you get to med school, I'd just track down whoever does sleep med there and establish a rapport with them. Many med schools assign a faculty advisor and maybe you could request a sleep doc.

Don't write off your background in cell bio relating to sleep med. There is actually a lot of neat cellular-level research going on in chronobiology; in fact, the basic science in that field has pretty much outstripped the clinical ability to treat, so "bench to bedside" translation is particularly needed. Your masters program contacts may have contacts at some med schools that you can get in touch with if you're interested. Are you planning on an MD/PhD?

Thanks for your reply. I wasn't intending to go into medical school with a set notion of what I want to specialize in. I've only just discovered this idea of sleep medicine and aspects of research and treatment were interesting to me as I have suffered mild sleep disturbances throughout my life. What I meant by my original post was to find out if there were things to consider as a med student since this seems like a relatively new and open field of specialty.

I'm glad to hear there are places where my interest in cell/molecular biology fits into this field. Although I'm only applying MD, research will be an important part of my time in medical school to be sure.

 

[michaelrack]

You could try to get a job as a sleep technician, which you could do part-time (though its best to have at least an initial period of 6 months of full-time work)

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

What is the path required to become a sleep doctor? IM residency and then Sleep fellowship? How about for DO students?

 

[neurologist]

What is the path required to become a sleep doctor? IM residency and then Sleep fellowship? How about for DO students?

1. Residency: IM, neuro, psych, peds neuro or psych, ENT, maybe family med are the most common

2. Fellowship(s): Most people with initial IM residency seem to do pulm/crit care fellowships first, then a sleep fellowship. The other residencies seem to go straight into sleep after residency.

3. DO students: Same thing -- residency then fellowship.

 

[CCTHEGREAT]

Thanks for posting that...it's helpful

 

[EBI831]

OP,
i'm just a 2nd year med student so take this for what it's worth. i, too, came in with an interest in sleep medicine. in fact in undergrad, i'd taken a class on it and then completed an independent study (ie readings) with one of the profs. so, in med school as one of my electives you can do independent study/preceptorship. i contacted the head of the pulm department and told him i was interested in sleep medicine and we set up this cool arrangement for the quarter where i worked on readings with two faculty (a neurologist and a pulmonologist), followed each of them in clinic a few times, and even got to spend some hours in the sleep lab learning from the techs, and did a presentation at the end to all the fellows, and got to meet one of the leading experts in sleep medicine and obesity who happens to work for the hospital too. try to see if ur school has such an opportunity. they are just happy to see people interested in sleep medicine so early. also, this experience can be an eye-opener because based on this i learned that pulm was not the path for me to go into sleep b/c it was mainly dealing with apnea and that i was way more interested in the neuro and ENT aspects. so, i'm currently shadowing ENTs to get a feel for how they deal with sleep issues.

 

[craigory]

You could try to get a job as a sleep technician, which you could do part-time (though its best to have at least an initial period of 6 months of full-time work)

I'd one hundred percent advise against this if you have a real job already, are in school, or have a social life. First of all, as an RPSGT, I can tell you the work is incredibly boring after a couple of weeks. Unless you luck into a research position you'll probably have to get a job for a CPAP mill that just wants a warm body in front of that computer. Then, if you haven't passed the BRPT exam, they'll probably also try to lowball you with some ridiculous wage like $14 / hour. You'll never get to work side by side with any of the Doctors unless you can score the studies which is work that they usually already have allocated to someone off-site or an experienced tech. Working nights is stressful, socially isolating, and very boring. It requires a lifestyle change that you have to commit to or drive yourself to the brink of insanity or a car accident. So, yeah... I wouldn't do it again.

 

[Joanhabety]

To neurologist: very informative post.