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Accession Number:
ADA505791
Title:
Sleep and Performance Measures in Soldiers Undergoing Military Relevant Training
Descriptive Note:
Conference paper
Corporate Author:
WALTER REED ARMY INST OF RESEARCH SILVER SPRING MD
Report Date:
2008-12-01
Pagination or Media Count:
9.0
Abstract:
Inadequate sleep is known to impair a variety of cognitive capacities, including attention, vigilance, concentration. memory encoding, and some aspects of higher order reasoning and judgment. The ability to unobtrusively measure fatigue and predict its effects on cognitive performance is vital to successful military operations. Wrist actigraphy is one such method, but its ability to accurately measure and predict performance in militarily relevant activities is not well validated. Healthy military volunteers N 108 were fitted with wrist actigraphs Actiwatch Minimitter Inc. while undergoing one of six military education programs lasting between 4 to 6 weeks. Sixty-four Actiwatches were worn consistently and yielded valid data. Actigraphic sleep data were analyzed with Actiware 3.41 using automated scoring algorithms. Indices of sleep duration, latency, and quality were used to predict academic success in these courses. Averaging across all courses and volunteers, Soldiers obtained 5.8 hours of sleep per night SD 0.5. Sleep duration was typically reduced to 4.6 SD 1.5 hours the night preceding an exam. Regardless of course type or test content, academic performance was significantly predicted by total sleep time, sleep latency, number of immobile minutes, and fragmentation index, but not total activity level. Regardless of course or exam content, academic performance was significantly related to the amount and quality of sleep obtained within the 48-hour period preceding the exams. Actigraphy appears to be a valid and unobtrusive method for predicting academic performance in military courses, although issues of participant compliance and detection of off-wrist periods need to be improved.
Distribution Statement:
APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
