Getting a good night's sleep is much more difficult for military
personnel who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a
new study of sleep patterns in the military. The scientific
research confirms what plenty of soldiers, Marines and other
members of the U.S. military have already experienced firsthand.
Military personnel were 28 percent more likely to report having
trouble falling asleep or staying asleep during deployment, when
compared with those who had not yet deployed. They were also 21
percent more likely to report sleep troubles after deployment.
"This is the first large-scale, population-based study of sleep
patterns in the military," said Amber Seelig, data analyst for
the Department of Deployment Health Research at the Naval Health
Research Center in San Diego, Calif. "The primary finding of
this study is that deployment does appear to affect sleep
patterns in our population." Survey respondents were more than
twice as likely to report sleep problems if they showed symptoms
of mental healt