title: The military performance of soldiers in sustained operations.
abstract: Two 9-d tactical defensive exercises were carried out. The first assessed and compared the performance of three platoons of infantry scheduled for either 0, 1.5, or 3 h of sleep in every 24 h, and the second determined whether soldiers are likely to remain militarily effective during a period of partial sleep loss following a period with no scheduled sleep at all. To this end, 10 infantry soldiers were scheduled for 4 h of sleep in every 24 for a 6-d period following a 3.75-d period without any scheduled sleep. Performance, physical fitness, and mood were assessed throughout both exercises. Results indicated that the effects of sleep loss are psychological rather than physiological; soldiers are likely to be militarily ineffective after 48-72 h without sleep; and a small amount of recovery sleep relative to the amount lost has very beneficial effects.
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004526:Efficiency / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D004739:England; D005221:Fatigue; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008887:Military Medicine; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D011592:Psychology, Military; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000502:physiology*; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors