Cocaine addict may be behind long hours for medical doctors: "Fledgling residents had to suffer long, consecutive work shifts, day and night. To Halsted, sleep was a dispensable luxury that detracted from the ability to work and learn. Halsted’s mentality was difficult to argue with, since he himself practiced what he preached, being renowned for a seemingly superhuman ability to stay awake for apparently days on end without any fatigue.
Only after Halsted’s death did a secret come to light that explained
the maniacal structure of his residency program and his ability to forgo sleep. Halsted was a cocaine addict" https://medicaljustice.com/a-century-of-brutal-call-schedule...
