Abstract
Objectives
Only one-third of U.S. Army Soldiers meet the recommended sleep guideline of 7 or
more hours per night. Soldiers meeting the recommended sleep guideline are more likely
to perform better on cognitive and physical tasks. The purpose of this analysis was
to compare the physical and behavioral characteristics of Soldiers who met and did
not meet the sleep recommendation guideline and determine associations between physical
and behavioral characteristics and the acquisition of recommended amounts of sleep
per night.
Methods
A survey was administered to U.S. Army Soldiers. Adjusted odds ratios and corresponding
95% confidence intervals were calculated to determine associations between achieving
the recommended number of hours of sleep per night and age, physical characteristics,
health behaviors, physical training, and physical performance.
Results
A survey was completed by 4229 men and 969 women. Male Soldiers who met the recommended
sleep requirement had lower estimated body fat [20.3 ± 4.2% vs. 21.1 ± 4.4%], were
less likely to use tobacco [11.5% vs. 16.2%] and exercised more [259 ± 226 vs. 244 ± 224 min/wk]
compared with those who did not obtain 7 hours of sleep per night. Female Soldiers
who met the recommended sleep requirement had lower estimated body fat [31.4 ± 4%
vs. 32.1 ± 4.6%] and exercised more [258 ± 206 vs. 241 ± 216 min/wk] compared with
those who did not obtain 7 hours of sleep per night.
Conclusion
Soldiers who choose to adopt healthy lifestyle characteristics may be more likely
to meet the recommended sleep duration guideline.
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
- FM 7–22 Holistic Health and Fitness. Headquarters, Department of the Army, Washington D.C.2020
- Recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: a joint consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society.Sleep. 2015; 38: 843-844
- Prevalence of healthy sleep duration among adults - United States, 2014.MMWR. 2016; 65: 137-141
- Sleep duration in the United States: a cross-sectional population-based study.Am J Epidemiol. 2009; 169: 1052-1063
- Prevalence and impact of short sleep duration in redeployed OIF soldiers.Sleep. 2011; 34: 1189-1195
- Sleep in the Military Promoting Health Sleep Among U. S. Servicemembers. RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA2015
- Sleep patterns before, during and after deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.Sleep. 2010; 33: 1615-1622
- Daily variation in sleep characteristics in individuals with and without post traumatic stress disorder.BMC Psychiatry. 2021; 21: 1-11
- Predeployment sleep duration and insomnia symptoms as risk factors for new onset mental health disorders following military deployment.Sleep. 2013; 36: 1009-1018
- Why sleep matters – the economic costs of insufficient sleep.Rand Health Q. 2017; 6: 11
- Sleep duration and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies.Sleep. 2010; 33: 585-592
- Sleep and athletic performance: the effects of sleep loss on exercise performance, and physiological and cognitive responses to exercise.Sports Med. 2015; 45: 161-186
- Sleep hygiene for optimizing recovery in athletes: review and recommendations.Int J Sports Med. 2019; 40: 535-543
- Sleep in adolescents and young adults.Clin Med. 2017; 17: 424-428
- Sleep duration and musculoskeletal injury incidence in physically active men and women: a study of U.S. Army Special Operations.Sleep Health. 2020; 6: 344-349
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Sleep Dispatch: Fighting Soldier Fatigue and Enhancing Cognitive Dominance. 〈https://www.wrair.army.mil/sites/default/files/2019–06/Behavioral_Health_and_Sleep.pdf〉. Accessed March 12, 2021.
- Impaired decision making following 49h of sleep deprivation.J Sleep Res. 2006; 15: 7-13
- The effects of a short daytime nap after restricted night sleep.Sleep. 2007; 1996: 570-575
- Longer sleep durations are positively associated with finishing place during a national multi-day netball competition.J Strength Cond Res. 2018; 32: 189-194
- The effects of sleep extension on the athletic performance of collegiate basketball players.Sleep. 2011; 34: 943-950
- Sleep as a component of the performance triad: the importance of sleep in a military population.US Army Med Dep J. 2013; : 98-108
- Occupational and other risk factors for injury among enlisted U.S. Army soldiers.Pub Health. 2015; 129: 531-538
- Extreme conditioning programs and injury risk in a U.S. Army brigade combat team.US Army Med Dep J. 2013; Oct-Dec: 36-47
- Effect of mandatory unit and individual physical training on fitness in military men and women.Am J Health Promot. 2017; 31: 378-387
CDC. National Health Interview Survey. 2021; 〈https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/tobacco/tobacco_guide.htm〉. Accessed January 19,2023.
- The pittsburgh sleep quality index: a new instrument for psychiatric practice and research.Psychiatry Res. 1988; 28: 193-213
- Validity of self-reported physical performance and BMI in a military population.J Strength Cond Res. 2016; 30: 26-32
- Healthy percentage body fat ranges: an approach for developing guidelines based on body mass index.Am J Clin Nutr. 2000; 72: 694-701
U.S. Army. The Performance Triad Guide. 2015; 〈https://ephc.amedd.army.mil/HIPECatalog/Uploads/DownloadableProds/684_P3%20Guide%20TEXTBOOK%202–18-2015%20web.pdf〉. Accessed March 28, 2022.
Defense Health Agency. Defense Health Agency CarePoint Informational Portal, Health of the Force Demographic Dashboard 2023; 〈https://carepoint.health.mil/sites/HOF/demographics/Pages/Demographic-Dashboard.aspx〉. Accessed March 6, 2023.
- Sleep disorders and associated medical comorbidities in active duty military personnel.Sleep. 2013; 36: 167-174
Center USAPH. 2020 Health of the Force. 2020; 〈https://phc,amedd.army.mil/topics/campaigns/hof〉.
- Meta-analysis of short sleep duration and obesity in children and adults.Sleep. 2008; 31: 619-626
- Short sleep duration and weight gain: a systematic review.Obesity. 2008; 16: 643-653
- Sleep and obesity.Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2011; 14: 402-412
- Brief communication: sleep curtailment in health young men is associated with decreased leptin levels, elevated ghrelin levels, and increased hunger and appetite.Ann Intern Med. 2004; 141: 846-851
- Effects of experimental sleep restriction on caloric intake and activity energy expenditure.Chest. 2013; 144: 79-86
- Short-term sleep loss decreases physical activity under free-living conditions but does not increase food intake under time-deprived laboratory conditions in healthy men.Am J Clin Nutr. 2009; 90: 1476-1482
- Sleep duration and obesity among adults: a meta-analysis of prospective studies.Sleep Med. 2014; 15: 1456-1462
- Sleep and BMI: do (Fitbit) bands aid.F1000 Res. 2018; 7: 1-8https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.14774.2
- The epidemiology of sleep and cardiovascular risk and disease.Oxford University Press,, Oxford2010
- Impaired sleep quality and sleep duration in smoker - results from the German Multicenter Study on Nicotine Dependence.Addict Biol. 2012; 19: 486-496
- Cigarette smoking and nocturnal sleep architecture.Am J Epidemiol. 2006; 164: 529-537
- Effects of nicotine sleep during consumption, withdrawal and replacement therapy.Sleep Med Rev. 2009; 13: 363-377
- Cigarette smoking and sleep disturbances.Addict Disord Treat. 2018; 17: 40-48
- Cigarette smoking and sleep disturbance.Arch Intern Med. 1995; 155: 734-737
- Effects of abstinence from smoking on sleep and daytime sleepiness.Chest. 1994; 105: 1136-1141
- Exercise and sleep.Sleep Med Rev. 2000; 4: 387-402
- Epidemiology of exercise effects on sleep.Acta Physiol Scand. 1988; 574: 3-7
- The impact of sleep duration on performance among competitive athletes: a systematic literature review.Clin J Sport Med. 2020; 30: 503-512
- Exercise and sleep: a systematic review of previous meta-analyses.J Evid Based Med. 2018; 10: 26-36
- 2013 Sleep in America Poll Exercise and Sleep.National Sleep Foundation,, Arlington, VA2013
- Moderate exercise plus sleep education improves self-reported sleep quality, daytime mood, and vitality in adults with chronic sleep complaints: a waiting list-controlled trial.Sleep Disord. 2011; : 1-10https://doi.org/10.1155/2011/809312)
- Effects of exercise on sleep.Clin Sports Med. 2005; 24: 355-365
- Physiological factors in infantry operations.Eur J Appl Physiol. 1990; 60: 233-238
- The effects of sleep loss on military physical performance.Sport Med. 2019; 49: 1159-1172
- Sleep disturbance during military deployment.Mil Med. 2008; 173: 230-235
- Sleep in the United States Military.Neuropsychopharmacology. 2020; 5: 176-191
- Delayed school start times and adolescent sleep: a systematic review of the experimental evidence.Sleep Med Rev. 2016; 28: 86-95
Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 22, 2023
Accepted:
March 21,
2023
Received in revised form:
March 13,
2023
Received:
November 17,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of National Sleep Foundation.
