Summer is almost here! So I thought I would post some timely information about sleep deprivation. My new favorite book, Superfoods Healthstyle by Steven Pratt and Kathy Matthews, has a section on sleep (pages 237-251). I wanted to sum up some of the information and how I thought it applied to cadet performance at encampments.

A proper amount of sleep for most cadets is 8 to 9 hours, with 8 hours best for older cadets and senior members.

Effects of sleep deprivation:

- Causes a decline in mental performance. This effect has been seen in studies where participants got six hours of sleep (typical at many encampments). And the participants in the study didn't even realize that they were performing more poorly. This means that a cadet (or senior!) who is getting 6 hours of sleep is thinking more slowly, making mistakes and has less attention to detail and doesn't even know it. So much for the cadet who says "I'm fine on four hours!"

- Causes people to try less. In one study, not only were the participants slower during tasks, but they chose less difficult tasks. During encampment we're trying to motivate our cadets during challenging activities. Sleep deprivation makes motivating and energizing cadets more difficult.

- Takes a toll on the immune system, leaving cadets more vulnerable to getting sick.

- "In one study, curtailing sleep to four hours per night for six nights impaired glucose tolerance and lowered insulin secretion in healthy well-rested young men." What does this mean? This means that only a week of sleep deprivation can mess up your hormones and the way you process food. Your body needs 8 hours of sleep to function properly.

- Causes impairment that is similar to when a person is over the legal limit of alcohol in their system. Imagine an inspection or drill competition drunk! That's what missing sleep does.
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I can hear it now, "But Allison, we have to stay up late because of XYZ." So I thought of:

Some typical excuses for staying up late and some alternate ideas:

- The staff meeting went long
Set time limits on nightly meetings. After a certain point, no one will pay attention anyways. One idea is to NOT have an all-staff meeting. The flight sergeants don't need to hear what the photography NCO is up to. Schedule meetings during the middle of the day if possible, during cadet classes for example.

- We had a fire drill
With the number of twisted ankles from nighttime fire drills, just have a fire drill during the day instead, talk about nighttime fire exit procedures and leave it at that.

- I had to prepare my uniform for the next day
Get your uniforms perfect before encampment. If you know there is going to be an obstacle course, try to bring a beat up pair of boots so you won't ruin your shiny ones (my grubby boots cost $25 at a thrift store). Use time-management and prepare your uniform during the day. Also, it does NOT take 3 hours to prepare a uniform! Chatting is not part of uniform preparation.

- I had CQ
For some encampments, CQ is a must. Hire a staff member for CQ only, and they can sleep during the day. Or, if you've got 56 or more cadets for a 7 night encampment, each cadet will only lose two hours of sleep once during the week for a two hour CQ shift in pairs.

- By staying up three hours to prepare the next day's schedule, review for the quiz bowl and prepare for the barracks inspection, I'm giving my cadets an edge.
Cadet staff with this line of thinking start putting on their canteens upside-down and their shirts inside-out because they're so tired. Or they get a bad cold. A cadet staff member is best serving their cadets by getting a full night's sleep so they can be alert and motivated the next day. Plan as much before encampment as you can!

- I drank 3 energy drinks!!!! I'm fine!!! I don't need sleep! Wheeeee!!
Energy drinks and coffee cannot replace a good night's sleep. And having caffeine after lunch can make it even more difficult to fall asleep when you do go to bed.

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I think that cadets and senior members need to view sleep at encampment as a safety issue and a performance issue. If our goals at encampment include learning anything, then sleep needs to be a priority! I believe that senior members need to enforce a lights out rule, especially for staff cadets.

So those are my thoughts. By the way, I definitely recommend Superfoods RX and Superfoods Healthstyle!

Good points. I'd like to add this excuse:

"But I needed to do all that stuff that you assigned to me!"

If anyone on the staff has so much to do at night they're limiting the amount of sleep they get they are A) not managing their time correctly during the day or B) someone has assigned them too much work or C) they are not delegating effectively. All of these are fixable problems; talk to your boss for assistance.

Heusser, ask Aubrey what NIN's first rule of encampments is... Quick, so you can post it here...

Too late..

NIN's first rule of encampments: "Civil Air Patrol is not an experiment in sleep deprivation."

Bingo - if its not on paper when you arrive, it won't get done at midnight, at least not well.

I broke my own rules this year and was on about 3-4 hours sleep every night. However I had the "advantage" of basically hiding in my office the whole time, vs. marching, etc.

A bad combination is no sleep + ops temp 2-3x's your normal life. As it was we had way too many cadets with "encampmentitis" this year.

Encampmentitis is the condition whereby young people who spend too much time in front of the TV, succumb to near exhaustion just walking to chow. It is exacerbated by the restrictions on sweets, pop, and caffeine.

I agree. One thing I wish I would have done before my first encampment is to go to bed early and wake up early. I would say go to bed at 11:00 and get up 5:30-6:00.

How much sleep to you get as a flight sergeant during encampment?

When i'm in charge, my cadet staff have enforced curfew just like the basic cadets. And it's not much later... 30 minutes maybe. Basically it allows them to be "on duty" up to the minute the cadets go lights out, and then have a few minutes to prep for bed, themselves, before they do likewise.

16-18 hours is a lot of day. If you can't get everything done, you're doing something wrong.

Hey everybody! Thanks for all the comments so far.

I ran across an article on MSN today that I thought was relevant to the topic:



You can check out the rest of the article here.

Isn't that what A.A. time is for? To get staff the sleep they need incase they didn't get it at night?

A.A.?

(Alcoholics Anonymous? )

Do not take energy drinks to combat sleep deprivation!!!
I took 3 of those lil 5oz energy shots on Saturday mid-day at McGuire and I started shaking that night. Not fun.

Well, numb[rank]...why the heck did you take three?

I use one or two red bulls to make it through all-nighters. (My consumption used to be much greater but I've managed to ditch my caffeine dependency...

An AA cat nap mid-week can certainly be refreshing, but it can't make up for a week of getting only four hours of sleep a night.

Actually, AA time isn't just "nap-time". Its main purpose is for cadet staff members to do anything they need to do to catchup on training schedules/goals/shine shoes/etc. It's kinda like personal time, but during the day - but most just use it to nap.

I don't know about other wing's encampments, but from personal experience I know that CAWG Encampents don't screw around with sleep, especially for staff members. We were even told that if we weren't in our bunks at lights out we would be relieved of our staff duties. That's how serious it was. We even had a SMAJ relieved for that very reason a few years back.

SMAJ? Senior Major?

Also what is a AA?

SMAJ=Sergeant Major-Not sure why CAWG uses that rather than Encampment Command Chief or Wing/Group Superintendent, or something USAF rather than Army, but they do...

Okay, why use an Army term?

By the way, Sergeant Major is not SMAJ, it is SGM

We've talked about this before here on CS.

Basically, when CAWG developed and implemented their highly-regarded encampment model in the 70's, they adopted the term that was then in use at the USAFA for the same position.

So when they created and defined the position, they used a USAF term for a USAF position at a cadet institution.

(And although my memory is less clear on this point, I believe they also adopted the then-current USAF abbreviation.)

It's not their fault that the USAF subsequently chose to fiddle around with the nomenclature; shifting like the wind between Senior Enlisted Advisor to Command Chief and then to Superintendant.

We figure --given a few more years -- the USAF will come full-circle and resume using Sergeant Major.


(BTW, the CAWG encampment has also used Command Chief from time to time in recent years. The choice appears to depend on who the encampment commander is.)

Ned Lee
DCP, Pacific Region

A related recommendation - each day, have the officers hold their staff meeting about tomorrow's events during the day while the NCOs supervise today's events. That way, the only briefing in the evening is the flight commanders telling their flight sergeants what to do tomorrow.

After all, we gave you two leaders per flight for a reason - it lets you be in two places at once!

You mean actually follow the 1/3-2/3 rule? That is just not right.

You need to add one saying:

But I needed to pass my Pro-Marksman

Enter 2006 KSWG Winter Encampment. This cadet from Charlie flight and I didn't pass our Pro-Marksman the first time around so we got pulled from some activity to go do a retry. Anyways we didn't get back until 1 or so and I had to wake the cadets up in the morning because I was a Flight Sergeant. We ended up having the next day, a First Aid/Katrina Relief class that lasted 2 hours in the morning and about 4 hours in the after noon. The other cadet and I were so tired that we fell asleep a couple of times and ended up having to stand in the back of the room to wake ourselves up. Did it help, NO.

They (people running the encampment) need to do stuff like that during the day not at 8-9 o'clock at night. That has been the worst case of sleep deprivation I've had in a long while.

Don't get sleep deprived

am I the only staff member that sleeps through classes I've heard 3 times? and the C130 and blackhawk rides(Serious)?

No, you aren't the only one, unfortunately.

I never took a nap at an Encampment WIWAC, to include the three where I served on Cadet Wing Staff. Now that I'm a crusty ol' SM, that might change.

haha, I slept on the C130 and the blackhawk.

But I stand up for classes.

I have slept on a C-130, but then that was prior to jumping

try 46 days of 2 to 6 hours sleep, getting on average 4 hours. good times...

I have gotten to looking at this year's Joint Dakota schedule and they have given us 7 hour nights with activities that require us to have 8-9 hours of sleep to recharge. What fun it will be.

I've never been staff at an encampment, and I have firsthand experience with the effects of sleep deprivation on performance... but I still have to say it. Sleep deprivation is part of the fun. I'm going to get slaughtered for that comment. (Ready with cigarette and blindfold.)

Sleep deprivation is an integral part of encampment. It's not intentional, it just happens naturally as a result of the new and stressful environment. You can try the tips above, but I've found that it's very hard to avoid.

Ditto. A major part of Encampments is called "Time Management". The rest speaks for itself.

A sleep plan that provides for adequate sleep is an integral part of any encampment plan. Failure to do so is the result of ignorance, lack of command emphasis and poor planning on all levels.