Service members are notorious for sleeping at any given opportunity, and often fall asleep quickly in non-traditional, noisy environments.
Sleep must be properly calibrated and carefully considered during nearly every aspect of one’s military career. We recognize a critical gap in research involving service members, but provide tailored interventions for military health care providers based on the large body of research in health care and public service workers. We then propose targeted pharmacological and non-pharmacological countermeasures to optimize performance that are mission- and symptom-specific. We focus on mission requirements of night shift work, sustained operations, and rapid re-entrainment to time zones. We present the current state of science in human and animal models specific to service members during- and post-military career. Increased co-morbidity and mortality are compounded by traumatic brain injury resulting from blunt trauma, blast exposure, and highly physically demanding tasks under load. Other physiologic and psychologic diagnoses such as post-traumatic stress disorder, cardiovascular disease, and dementia have also been associated with chronic, insufficient sleep. In the long-term, chronic insufficient sleep and circadian rhythm disorders have been associated with other sleep disorders (e.g., insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, and parasomnias).
Insufficient sleep and resulting fatigue compromises personal safety, mission success, and even national security. The significant mental and physical derangements caused by degraded metabolic, cardiovascular, skeletomuscular, and cognitive health often result from insufficient sleep and/or circadian misalignment. These stressful environments present unique challenges for service members attempting to achieve consolidated, restorative sleep. The military lifestyle often includes continuous operations whether in training or deployed environments.
0 kommentar(er)
