Safeguarding Sleep: Assessing Quality of Life For U.S. Navy Senior Leaders the Surface Fleet
Abstract
Senior leaders onboard U.S. Navy vessels afloat have constantly evolving schedules that are rarely consistent from day to day. Over the past two decades, studies of work and rest patterns have confirmed anecdotal reports of insufficient sleep of enlisted Sailors. The sleep of senior Officers has not been closely examined. Assessing sleep of surface fleet Officers as they perform their duties in the fleet may provide insight into the bigger picture of health and wellness in the U.S. Navy. As part of a multi-year project, sleep patterns of senior leaders were assessed while in training and in the fleet. An 18-month longitudinal data collection commenced when participants were attending Surface Warfare Schools Command (SWSC) in Newport, RI, and continued as participants assumed their operational positions in the fleet. This thesis takes an initial look into the sleep, mood, and other physiological patterns of senior leaders in these two settings over the first few months of the study. Participants completed validated questionnaires to assess their overall wellbeing and wore physiological monitors (URA rings) to assess the duration and quality of their sleep. In this first opportunity to examine patterns in the data, we found statistically significant differences in sleep duration of senior leaders depending on where they were living and working; that is, when they were attending school, between school and operational command, and after they arrived at their operational command.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1212899
Entities
People
- Crystal M. Cornine
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School