EDITORIAL

“It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.” ― John Steinbeck, Sweet Thursday

Yet another term down and one more to go. This means only one thing: exams are looming and medical students all over Bristol are burying their heads in the books (or the sand as the case may be). With this in mind, our fabulous team of writers and illustrators have put together this ‘lifestyle issue’ dedicated to helping getting the most out of yourself and your performance. This might sound a bit daunting, but the good news is that this entails sleeping, eating and being merry (not drinking though- you didn’t think the news would be that good did you?).

So you’ve been burning the candle at both ends and you might be feeling a little sleep deprived right about now. In fact, we know you are, because over 50% of you told us so- turn to page 10 to see the results of a little medical school sleep survey we’ve been busily conducting. But if you think sleep is for the weak, think again. It turns out that old maxim was actually right- early to bed might indeed be the key to making you healthy, wealthy and wise. So if you’ve been rebuffing your non-medic friends’ late-night pub invites in preference for clocking up time in the library perhaps you shouldn’t feel so smug after all. We’ll be hearing from everyone’s favourite Professor in “THOMPSON TALKS” on why hitting the hay instead of the books might be the the best exam revision technique (pagE 7) .For those of you who will be starting our first jobs as doctors(!) in August, take note as Trevor gives us some words of wisdom about surviving those night shifts.

We’ll also be hearing from Nutritank. Born at Bristol Medical School, this team have sparked a nationwide movement. Backed by the likes of Jamie Oliver we hear about their mission to get medical students and doctors talking more about healthy eating. Speaking of which, see page 21 for a ready-made revision fuel recipe.

We wish you all the best of luck in exams and hope the final years are having a grand time on elective. Hopefully this issue can provide some useful advice as well as a bit of light relief from the textbooks. But if you are reading this at 1am, do put this down and get some sleep!

J. KONDRATOWICZ

Editor-in-chief 4th year MB ChB