Effects of Shifting the Timing of Sleep on Training Effectiveness

1123 Accommodating Adolescent Sleep-Wake Patterns—Miller et al INTRODUCTION Obtaining adequate sleep is a challenge for those serving in the military and is especially difficult for individuals in military training environments. As today’s military mission has grown increasingly complex, initial indoctrination and training curricula have responded by increasing the number of contact hours with recruits in an attempt to increase the amount of information and skills covered. All too often, this increased training time comes at the expense of sleep, as trainers attempt to squeeze more skills and information into a restricted time period. Military training regimes often include some degree of sleep deprivation, whether it is by design or unintentional. Several studies have demonstrated that sleep deprivation is prevalent in military training and education programs. For example, Killgore et al.1 used actigraphy to determine sleep amounts in soldiers attending military training at the Noncommissioned Officer Academy and the Warrant Officer Candidate School. Their study found that these individuals obtained 5.8 h of sleep per night on average. Miller and colleagues2,3 reporting on the preliminary results of a 4-year longitudinal study of sleep in U.S. Military Academy (USMA) cadets based on actigraphy data, found that cadets averaged only 5.4 h of sleep per night. EFFECTS OF SHIFTING THE TIMING OF SLEEP ON TRAINING EFFECTIVENESS