Sleep Medicine Knowledge Among Graduating Medical Students in Lebanon During an Economic and Political Crisis

Objectives: Sleep disorders are prevalent and underrecognized during both economic and political crises. They are a major reason for poor overall health and decreased quality of life. Sleep medicine education is limited at most medical schools, resulting in limited awareness of this important aspect of healthcare. The aim of the study is to assess sleep medicine knowledge of graduating medical students in Lebanon and to assess their readiness to tackle sleep health issues in a country during an unprecedented crisis. Methods: Final-year medical students at 7 medical schools in Lebanon were invited to fill a survey between January 2020 and March 2021. The Assessment of Sleep Knowledge in Medical Education survey was used to assess their knowledge in sleep medicine. The curriculum organizers at the medical schools were also surveyed. Students t-test was used for analysis. Results: 158 and 58 students completed the survey during 2020 and 2021, with a mean overall score on sleep knowledge of 17.5 and 15.9 out of 30, respectively. There was no difference in mean knowledge scores by gender, age, American versus European medical school systems, and between medical schools that included sleep medicine in their curriculum versus those that did not. Conclusions: Presence of sleep medicine education in the curriculum was associated with higher scores on ASKME among graduating Lebanese medical students. Overall, the new crop of physicians in Lebanon possesses a relatively good knowledge base in sleep medicine. Nevertheless, more effort should be made to uniformly maintain this level of sleep education.

Future of Sleep Medicine and Psychiatry

As evidenced throughout this volume, sleep and psychiatry are deeply intertwined. Sleep and psychiatric processes share multiple biologic underpinnings, and sleep and psychiatric disorders are highly comorbid, with an additive adverse impact. Yet, much remains unknown, and much work remains to optimize treatments of sleep disorders in psychiatric populations. This chapter is to consider these issues with an eye toward the future. The chapter briefly considers sleep medicine education in psychiatry, drug development and novel compounds, consumer wearables, behavioral and complementary approaches, telehealth, and sleep health economics. The authors argue for the need to a value-based approach to sleep and psychiatry.

Incorporating sleep medicine content into medical school through neuroscience core curricula

ObjectiveTo present (1) justification for earmarking sleep medicine education as an essential component of all medical school curricula and (2) various avenues to incorporate sleep medicine exposure into medical school curricula through (primarily) neuroscience and neurology courses.MethodsPer consensus of a team of leading neurology and sleep medicine educators, an evidence-based rationale for including sleep medicine across a 4-year medical school curriculum is presented along with suggested content, available/vetted resources, and formats for delivering sleep medicine education at various points and through various formats.ResultsGrowing evidence has linked sleep disorders (e.g., sleep-disordered breathing, chronic insufficient sleep) as risk factors for several neurologic disorders. Medical educators in neurology/neuroscience are now strongly advocating for sleep medicine education in the context of neurology/neuroscience pre and post graduate medical education. Sleep medicine education is also a critical component of a proactive strategy to address physician wellness and burnout. The suggested curriculum proposes a sleep educational exposure time of 2–4 hours per year in the form of lectures, flipped-classroom sessions, clinical opportunities, and online educational tools that would result in a 200%–400% increase in the amount of sleep medicine exposure that US medical schools currently provide. The guidelines are accompanied by the recommendation for use of technological education, to facilitate more seamless curricular incorporation.ConclusionEven in this era with limited flexibility to add content to an already packed medical school curriculum, incorporating sleep medicine exposure into the current medical school curriculum is both justified and feasible.