Is Your Doctor Too Drowsy?

Legislators are raising alarms about sleep-deprived surgeons--and if you're concerned, so should you

Sleep is a funny thing. We're taught that we should get seven or eight hours a night, but a lot of us get by just fine on less, and some of us actually sleep too much. A study out of the University of Buffalo last month reported that people who routinely sleep more than eight hours a day and are still tired are nearly three times as likely to die of stroke--probably as a result of an underlying disorder that keeps them from snoozing soundly.

Doctors have their own special sleep problems. Residents are famously sleep deprived. When I was...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!