The Impact of Insufficient Sleep on Combat Mission Performance

ABSTRACT A significant concern for the U.S. military is the inability of service members to obtain sufficient sleep during combat deployments as it directly affects the health and readiness of the force. The performance deficits that result from sleep loss are well known, and the implications of such deficits include increased risk for accidents and mistakes. This study assessed the relationship between average daily sleep duration and combat mission performance. Anonymous survey data were collected from U.S. Army combat platoons deployed to Afghanistan in 2013. Participants reported getting between five and six hours of sleep per day, and 14.6% of soldiers reported accidents that affected the mission, with half of these (51%) attributed to sleepiness. A logistic regression showed a significant association between the number of hours of sleep and the incidence of accidents or mistakes that affected the mission. In addition, 34.1% of soldiers reported falling asleep on guard duty, which was also significantly associated with the number of hours of sleep per day. This is the first report to our knowledge on the relationship between sleep and performance in a deployed environment and confirms that soldiers obtain significantly less sleep than the recommended seven to eight hours per day.