The Army is concerned that its soldiers are not getting enough sleep. Now another Army unit is working to make sure soldiers on staff duty get some shut eye.
This past week the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, based out of Fort Bliss, sent out a memorandum directing all soldiers who are on staff duty to get at minimum four hours of sleep during their shift. The memo, posted to social media by people at Fort Bliss, is a two-page document laying out the importance of sleep and what specifically is asked of soldiers on staff duty to do in order to meet the requirement. In order to do so, the staff duty NCO must create a schedule to allow for a rotation of sleep, and can step in if needed to make sure someone is on duty while all soldiers get their required rest.
The guidance, which cites both a Congressional study and the military’s own FM 7-22 field manual on health, says that the four hours of sleep are necessary to “preserve executive function and reduce the risk of vehicle and other accidents after they are relieved of duty.”
The move comes after the 18th Airborne Corps at For Liberty ordered mandatory sleep for soldiers on staff duty in mid May. Maj. David Nixon with 18th Airborne Corps first came up with the policy. He previously told Task & Purpose that the idea for it was to give direct guidance to an issue where there wasn’t a clear directive. He pointed to general risks from sleepiness when it comes to awareness, something that could easily be avoided by mandating sleep for soldiers on staff duty.
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The memo for the 11th ADA is nearly identical to the 18th Airborne Corps’. Alongside citing the reasons for the directive, it outlines some clear guidelines, including that “[u]nits are not authorized to hold their Soldiers past their shift to sleep.” Sleep is recommended during nighttime hours for the best results, and all soldiers who complete staff duty will still get a day off after their shift ends.
It’s well known, both through research and anecdotes, that soldiers or any service members don’t get enough sleep. The lack of rest is such an issue that the military is actively studying ways to make the sleep that soldiers do get more effective.
So far the guidances for getting sleep are being issued on a command-by-command basis, not from any wider Department of Defense directive.
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