Posted on Aug 1, 2015
AN Aviation Boatswain's Mate (Abe) (Equipment)
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When you are out to sea in the Navy you work 7 days a week as a ABE. In the Navy you work until flight ops is over. After flight ops there is maintenance to be done and during man downs with flight ops we have to make sure our spaces are intact an ABE. During a deployment Sailors will probably get 3 to 4 hours of sleep on a good day . How is a Sailor able to keep doing his or her job 100% daily with such little sleep?
Posted in these groups: Sleep SleepingC8005900 Sailors
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
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There are studies that show that (continued) lack of sleep is just as dangerous as intoxication when it comes to performance. There's a reason we have mandatory downtime for pilots, and truck drivers (civilians).

This is not to say we cannot "burst" high tempo, but it's not sustainable. We can only do it for so long before it becomes dangerous for us, and those around us.
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
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SGT Kristin Wiley I can't speak to the Army side of things, but that seems to be a "cultural" issue, whereas if we had the next Senior Duty come by at 0200 and we were both up, he'd look at us and go "Why you both up?"
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SGT Kristin Wiley
SGT Kristin Wiley
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I always thought the Marine Corps was the 'harder' service, but after 6 years in the Army I can't help but wonder if the other services care more about their personnel then we do. It seems we care more about controlling our troops more then their welfare. I'm glad you are able to sleep on duty, I wish the Army cultural would change for best interest of our servicemembers and make these small changes.
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
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SGT Kristin Wiley Welfare is a VERY big thing in the Corps. The sleep thing is just a pragmatic approach to a problem.
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LCDR Deputy Department Head
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and even when "bursting" the ability to sustain 100% basically only lasts a day into sleep deprivation.
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CPO Gregory Smith
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It's kind of funny really, the Navy has regulations for sleep for folks on training status but once you hit the fleet that goes out the window. I guess we don't train how we fight.
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PO1 John Miller
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Unfortunately there are not any real regulations for regular fleet Sailors (to my knowledge anyway). It sucks but that's the nature of the beast.

Continued lack of sleep has been proven to contribute, if not cause, sleep apnea. I have it myself from 20 years of lack of sleep.
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CPO Information Systems Technician
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Yep, sleep apnea, stress and always rushing through meals also contributes to GERD, which also further disrupts restful sleep. One-size-fits-all Command PT and high-impact exercises like running also tears your body up, and after 20 years of it, your back and joint problems disrupt sleep if not directly piling on to diminish productivity. Working 80 to 110 hour weeks compounds all of these negative effects. In one sense, that's just the job, but in another, it's a major leadership failure, because it's never addressed from this perspective. There's always somebody who isn't disabled (yet) who's gonna sit there and say "suck it up". Well, we do that already. Why can't leaders tell their bosses that we all need to find ways to lead better?
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PO1 John Miller
PO1 John Miller
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Guess what else I have? GERD. I'm wondering if it was caused in part by my sleep apnea now.

The good news is I'm getting treatment for both conditions from the VA.
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