According to a new study from the Madigan Army Medical Center located in Tacoma, Washington, the average servicemen gets only 5.74 hours of sleep a night. In comparison, the National Sleep Foundation recommends that adults get about 7- 9 hours of sleep per night.
Data for this study was collected from sleep analyses done at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, WA in 2010. Participants were from the Navy, Army, and Air Force, and active- duty. In addition, their study pointed to 85.1% of those surveyed as having a sleep disorder.
Obstructive sleep apnea accounted for 51.2% of sleep disorders found. Insomnia was the second leading sleep disorder, making up 24.7% of participants’ diagnosis. Vincent Mysliwiec, who headed up the study, had this to say about the results, “While sleep deprivation is part of the military culture, the high prevalence of short sleep duration in military personnel with sleep disorders was surprising.”
Furthermore, soldiers that were afflicted by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder were twice as likely to suffer from insomnia. Researchers expressed their desire for a different outlook on sleep in the military, “The dramatic self report of [short sleep duration] in our cohort is consistent with prior studies and suggests the need for a cultural change toward appropriate sleep practices throughout the military.”
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