Regarding the U.S., the reality is that it's mostly the students (med students, residents and fellows.. you're called Doctor by residency) that are sleep depriv

Regarding the U.S., the reality is that it's mostly the students (med students, residents and fellows.. you're called Doctor by residency) that are sleep deprived. After that most doctors are on normal to normal-ish cycles. But because residents and fellows are such solid profit earners for hospitals and the hospital owns their life they opt to over-work them and charge you max dollar for their time. Once the doctor is board certified (post residency or fellowship) then the power shifts back towards the doctor and they can get more normal lives. Exceptions are specializations that are essentially emergency/urgent but even most of them are on rotations like another poster mentioned where they've shifted their own sleep patterns to match their hours. Since watching my friends become doctors (psychiatrists, uroligists, neurointerventional readiology) and my wife become a surgeon I have started telling friends and family "If your doctor looks under the age of 35 then you should ask them the last time they slept before they start treating you. tl;dr : hospitals straight up own the futures of their med students/residents/fellows .. so they overwork them while paying them $40-55k year, and when they aren't working they have to study for their exams.