Elsevier

Sleep Health

Volume 5, Issue 3, June 2019, Pages 309-314
Sleep Health

Sleep health and its association with performance and motivation in tactical athletes enrolled in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2019.01.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

To examine habitual sleep health and investigate how habitual sleep duration impacts performance and motivation in Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) tactical athletes.

Design

Observational.

Setting

A large, state university.

Participants

Fifty-four young tactical athletes enrolled in ROTC.

Measurements

Participants wore wrist actigraph devices and completed sleep diaries for 7 days prior to completing a cognitive/motor test battery.

Results

The mean objective total sleep time of the participants was 6.17 ± 0.69 hours, with only 7.4% of participants averaging ≥7 hours of sleep per day. A mean sleep quality rating between “Poor” and “Fair” was reported by 22.2% of participants. The mean Epworth Sleepiness Scale rating was 8.80 ± 3.24, with 27.8% of participants reporting scores >10. Controlling for age and gender, the average objective total sleep duration was significantly associated with performance on the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (P = .026) and with motivation levels to perform the cognitive/motor battery (P = .016), but not with performance on the Psychomotor Vigilance Test, Flanker task, Trail Making Test, or Standing Broad Jump.

Conclusions

ROTC tactical athletes habitually sleep less than the recommended 7 hours per day with roughly one-fourth reporting excessive daytime sleepiness and one-fifth reporting poor sleep quality, which may increase their risk for future adverse health outcomes. Longer sleep durations were associated with higher motivation levels and better cognitive processing speed performance; however, they were not associated with executive function, psychomotor vigilance, or broad jump performance.

Introduction

In order to promote optimal health and performance, it has been recommended that adults consistently sleep at least 7 hours per night 1. Optimal health and performance is especially important in military service members, who are often referred to as “tactical athletes” 2. Military service members are at an increased risk of insufficient sleep duration 3. This is of concern considering marksmanship accuracy has been shown to decrease following sleep restriction 4, 5 and short sleep durations have been related to the development of mental disorders following combat deployments in a military population 6. Chronic insufficient sleep has also been associated with sleepiness, mood changes, and cognitive impairments in memory, attention, and alertness 7, 8, 9. In addition to the cognitive consequences of sleep loss, impaired physical performance has been reported, including skill execution, submaximal strength, and muscular power 10. Considering what can be at stake in military performance, both in the cognitive and physical domains, the consequences of insufficient sleep are of great concern.

The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) is the largest commissioning source of officers among all military branches of service 11 and trains tactical athletes to become leaders and decision makers within the US military. While it is known that college students, collegiate athletes, and US service members have been found to habitually sleep less than the recommended 7 hours per night 3, 12, 13, 14, little is known about the sleep health of ROTC tactical athletes. Knowledge about the sleep health in this population will provide awareness and may help develop, test, and implement strategies to optimize the health and readiness of this population. Because these individuals will be in leadership roles in the military, their sleep health has the potential to affect the well-being, health and performance of both themselves and their subordinates.

The objective of this study was to assess sleep health of tactical athletes enrolled in ROTC and to determine whether habitual sleep patterns are associated with cognitive/motor performance and motivation levels. It was hypothesized that ROTC tactical athletes would sleep less than the recommended amounts and that longer sleep durations would be associated with better performance on a cognitive/motor test battery and motivation levels.

Section snippets

Participants

Students (age 18–30 years) enrolled in a ROTC program at the University of Maryland, College Park were invited to participate in the study. Participants were excluded at the initial screening if they self-reported any of the following: history of psychiatric disorder, take medications with sleep-related side effects, use illicit drugs, average more than 8.5 hours of sleep per 24-hours, extend their sleep by more than 90 minutes per night on weekend nights compared to weekday nights, or if they

Sleep Duration

Mean objective total sleep time (as determined with wrist actigraphy) was 6.17 ± 0.69 hours. Only 7.4% of the participants averaged at least 7 hours of sleep per day, while 53.7% of participants slept between 6.0 and 6.9 hours per day, and 38.9% slept less than 6.0 hours per day. Fig. 1 displays the average sleep duration for each participant. The sleep diary mean total sleep amount was 6.46 ± 0.83 hours, which significantly correlated with the actigraph data (Pearson's r = .553, P < .001).

Subjective Sleep Quality

Mean

Discussion

This is the first study to investigate the sleep health in ROTC tactical athletes and to document the relationship between habitual sleep duration and daytime performance and motivation in this population. Consistent with active duty military populations 12, ROTC tactical athletes obtain insufficient sleep. The mean actigraphic sleep duration in this study was just over 6 hours, below the recommended amount for young adults 1. ROTC tactical athletes not only obtain less sleep than the

Conclusions

In this initial study of ROTC tactical athletes training to become leaders in the U.S. military, most of the sample habitually slept less than the recommended 7 hours per day with roughly one-fourth reporting excessive daytime sleepiness and one-fifth reporting poor sleep quality. Longer sleep durations were associated with higher motivation levels and better cognitive processing speed performance; however, they were not associated with executive function, psychomotor vigilance, or broad jump

Disclosure

Material has been reviewed by the WRAIR, there was no objection to its presentation and/or publication. The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private views of the author, and are not to be construed as official, or as reflecting the views of the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense. The investigators have adhered to the policies for protection of human subjects as prescribed in AR 70–25.

Conflicts of Interest

None of the authors have any relevant conflicts of interest to report.

Financial Support

The University of Maryland's Department of Kinesiology Graduate Student Research Initiative Fund funded the participant compensation for this project. This manuscript was prepared while GS held a National Research Council Research Associateship Award at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR).

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the UMD, College Park ROTC leadership from all services for their support of this project. We would also like to thank LTC Vincent Capaldi and the Behavioral Biology Branch at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) for the use of the actigraphs and support throughout the project.

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    Current Location: Military Performance Division, United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, 10 General Greene Ave, Natick, MA 01760.

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