Abstract
Background
Military personnel must maintain physical performance despite exposure to operational
stressors such as sleep loss, caloric restriction and high cognitive load. Habitual
sleep and specific sleep features are positively associated with fitness and may contribute
to physical performance in operational settings. Further, by affecting muscle recovery,
sleep may contribute to the ability to maintain performance across multiple days of
exposure to operational stressors.
Objectives
We examined the role of individual differences in baseline sleep on baseline physical
performance and on change in physical performance throughout exposure to simulated
military operational stress (SMOS).
Methods
Military personnel (36 male, 9 female, 26.3 ± 5.3 years) completed a 5-day SMOS protocol
during which they completed a tactical mobility test daily. Sleep questionnaires were
administered at intake and sleep was monitored each night with polysomnography. Lasso
regressions were used to identify meaningful predictors of physical performance at
baseline and of change in physical performance across SMOS.
Results
Better aerobic fitness, lower daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale), and lower
absolute slow wave activity (0.5-4 Hz) predicted better physical performance at baseline
(66.1% of variance explained), but did not relate to changes in performance.
Conclusions
Collectively, higher daytime sleepiness and slow wave activity may reflect more chronic
exposure to insufficient sleep and higher baseline sleep drive, which in turn led
to compromised physical performance. The findings suggest that low self-report sleepiness
and low objective slow wave activity may reflect two quantifiable markers of healthy
sleep behaviors that have implications for operational performance.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Sleep Health: Journal of the National Sleep FoundationAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Benefits of sleep extension on sustained attention and sleep pressure before and during total sleep deprivation and recovery.Sleep. 2015; 38: 1935-1943https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.5244
- Relationships between sleep quality, physical fitness and body mass index in college freshmen.J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2015; 55: 1234-1241
- The impact of sleep duration on performance among competitive athletes: a systematic literature review.Clin J Sport Med. 2020; 30: 503-512https://doi.org/10.1097/JSM.0000000000000622
- The bidirectional relationship between exercise and sleep: implications for exercise adherence and sleep improvement.Am J Lifestyle Med. 2014; 8: 375-379https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827614544437
- The effects of sleep extension on the athletic performance of collegiate basketball players.Sleep. 2011; 34: 943-950https://doi.org/10.5665/SLEEP.1132
- Effects of sleep extension on cognitive/motor performance and motivation in military tactical athletes.Sleep Med. 2019; 58: 48-55https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2019.03.013
- Sleep quality and duration are associated with performance in maximal incremental test.Physiol Behav. 2017; 177: 252-256https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2017.05.014
- Extended sleep maintains endurance performance better than normal or restricted sleep.Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019; 51: 2516-2523https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000002071
FM 7-22 Holistic Health and Fitness. Department of the Army; 2020. Accessed February 18, 2022. Available at: https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN30714-FM_7-22-000-WEB-1.pdf
- Sleep in the United States military.Neuropsychopharmacology. 2020; 45: 176-191https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-019-0431-7
- Sleep duration and physical performance during a 6-week military training course.J Sleep Res. 2021; 30: e13393https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13393
- Fitness facilitates sleep.Eur J Appl Physiol. 1984; 53: 1-4https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00964680
- Sleep depth and continuity before and after chronic exercise in older men: electrophysiological evidence.Physiol Behav. 2015; 140: 203-208https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.12.031
- Submaximal exercise effects on sleep patterns in young women before and after an aerobic training programme.Acta Physiol Scand Suppl. 1988; 574: 8-13
- Slow wave sleep during a brief nap is related to reduced cognitive deficits during sleep deprivation.Sleep. 2021; (Published online June 22): zsab152https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsab152
- Sleep and muscle recovery: endocrinological and molecular basis for a new and promising hypothesis.Med Hypotheses. 2011; 77: 220-222https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2011.04.017
- REM sleep deprivation impairs muscle regeneration in rats.Growth Factors. 2017; 35: 12-18https://doi.org/10.1080/08977194.2017.1314277
- Neuromuscular performance and hormonal responses to military operational stress in men and women.J Strength Cond Res. 2021; 35: 1296-1305https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000004013
- The Pittsburgh sleep quality index: a new instrument for psychiatric practice and research.Psychiatry Res. 1989; 28: 193-213https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1781(89)90047-4
- Insomnia: Psychological Assessment and Management. xvii. Guilford Press, 1993: 238
- A new method for measuring daytime sleepiness: the Epworth sleepiness scale.Sleep. 1991; 14: 540-545https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/14.6.540
- Use-dependent corticospinal excitability is associated with resilience and physical performance during simulated military operational stress.J Appl Physiol. 2021; (Published online December 2:japplphysiol.00628.2021)https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00628.2021
- Impact of simulated military operational stress on executive function relative to trait resilience, aerobic fitness, and neuroendocrine biomarkers.Physiol Behav. 2021; 236113413https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2021.113413
- Combined effects of time-of-day and simulated military operational stress on perception-action coupling performance.Chronobiol Int. 2022; (Published online September 21): 1-13https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2022.2125405
- Borg's Perceived Exertion and Pain Scales. viii. Human Kinetics, 1998: 104
- The AASM Manual for the Scoring of Sleep and Associated Events: Rules, Terminology and Technical Specifications.American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 2018
- Power spectral analysis of EEG in a multiple-bedroom, multiple-polygraph sleep laboratory.Int J Med Inf. 1997; 46: 175-184https://doi.org/10.1016/s1386-5056(97)00064-6
- Muscle artifacts in the sleep EEG: automated detection and effect on all-night EEG power spectra.J Sleep Res. 1996; 5: 155-164https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2869.1996.00009.x
- Automating the sleep laboratory: implementation and validation of digital recording and analysis.Int J Biomed Comput. 1995; 38: 277-290https://doi.org/10.1016/s0020-7101(05)80010-8
- Regularization paths for generalized linear models via coordinate descent.J Stat Softw. 2010; 33: 1-22https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v033.i01
- Using Lasso for predictor selection and to assuage overfitting: a method long overlooked in behavioral sciences.Multivar Behav Res. 2015; 50: 471-484https://doi.org/10.1080/00273171.2015.1036965
- Longitudinal associations between sleep patterns and psychiatric symptom severity in high-risk and community comparison youth.J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2019; 58: 608-617https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.09.448
- ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription.Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2014
- Committee on the well being of military families. demographic and military service characteristics of military families.in: Le Menestrel S Kizer K Strengthening the Military Family Readiness System for a Changing American Society. National Academies Press, 2019
- Daytime sleepiness, exercise, and physical function in older adults.J Sleep Res. 2007; 16: 60-65https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2007.00576.x
- The effect of continuous positive airway pressure treatment on physical activity in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea: a randomised controlled trial.Sleep Med. 2009; 10: 1056-1058https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2008.11.007
- Perspectives on resilience for military readiness and preparedness: report of an international military physiology roundtable.J Sci Med Sport. 2018; 21: 1116-1124https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2018.05.005
- Sleep and exercise: a reciprocal issue?.Sleep Med Rev. 2015; 20: 59-72https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2014.06.008
- How does sleep help recovery from exercise-induced muscle injuries?.J Sci Med Sport. 2021; 24: 982-987https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2021.05.007
- The two-process model of sleep regulation: a reappraisal.J Sleep Res. 2016; 25: 131-143https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.12371
- Partial sleep deprivation affects endurance performance and psychophysiological responses during 12-minute self-paced running exercise.Physiol Behav. 2020; 227113165https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.113165
Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 09, 2022
Accepted:
October 30,
2022
Received in revised form:
October 13,
2022
Received:
May 26,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
