Using a Public Health Framework to Address Operational Sleep Health

Sleep disruption has been identified by the Department of Defense as one of the primary threats to service member health and mission readiness. Notwithstanding the clear need to address this threat, service members continue to endorse significant rates of sleep disruption, short sleep duration, and formal sleep disorders. Using the socio-ecological model, this commentary illustrates how factors at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy level may interact to determine whether an individual service member or particular military unit gets sufficient sleep to accomplish the assigned mission. Several areas are highlighted in which a public health approach to addressing sleep disruption throughout the military can move beyond an individual focus and facilitate system-wide improvements in service member sleep. In particular, caffeine use, physical activity, and sleep scheduling could be addressed through systematic prevention efforts across the Department of Defense.