On 12 March 2013, Secretary Of The Army John Mchugh Launched

On 12 March 2013, Secretary of the Army John McHugh launched the Army’s Ready and Resilient Campaign designed to help in the Army’s effort to build physical, emotional, and psychological resilience in Soldiers. The Performance Triad is a key enabler in this campaign. It’s a health program to educate Soldiers and their families of the benefits of improving sleep behavior, increasing daily activities, and improving nutrition. All three of these directly impact mental and physical performance and overall health. This paper will be focused on the importance of sleep and sleep behaviors and how sleep deprivation can affect operations. Sleep is important to maintain psychological and physical health. Soldiers require seven to eight hours of†¦show more content†¦In an operational environment, Soldiers need to not sleep behind or in front of any military vehicle. They need to try and sleep away from any vehicle traffic. Personnel need to ensure they are protected against pests and any environmental hazards that might be specific to the area. When an individual is nearing lights out they must wind down about thirty to sixty minutes prior. This process could be taking a nice warm shower or a relaxing bubble bath. You must remove yourself from all electronics and just go unplugged prior to turning the lights out. This allows your mind to start preparing itself so you can easily fall asleep within fifteen minutes of turning the lights out. Try to stick to a consistent bed time and wake up time during the week and weekends. When you stay up late on Friday and Saturday night and sleep in on Saturday and Sunday it puts your body in a similar state to jet lag. This makes it even harder to get up on Monday. There are various short term and long term consequences of sleep deficiency. In the short term your mental and physical performance will decrease along with your reaction time. Lack of sleep can cause poor decision making which could put lives at risk. A Soldier might give out or hear the wrong coordinates. If a Soldier was in the field they could accidently get into a friendly fire incident or administer the wrong medication or dosage. Each one of these