A recent study shows that a night without sleep can damage the brain like a blow to the head. Should this change Staff Duty and CQ rules?

I have always questioned the 24 hour duty, most would end up
staying up past 24 hours. Get up for PT 0530, go to work then stay up for the
night until the next morning. Get relieved about 8:30, take care of a couple
things then head home, trying not to fall asleep, get to the house eat and it
is going on 11:00. 

How many time were we reminded not to drive past so many hours at a safety briefing because of a long weekend, that we need to pull over and get some sleep.

I always let my folks sleep while I stayed up.

While I am in no way connected to the medical fields - I have worked the night shift both in the civilian world before the military and for about 75% of my military career.  So I have a little bit of experience with this subject.

I believe sleep in its
self is a private behavior, but it has public consequences when there is sleep
deprivation involved. In terms of work, there are a couple of factors that are
directly impacted by sleep.

One, there’s the
productivity factor.  Sleep is critically
essential for cognitive performance. The lack of sleep greatly impairs our cognitive
performance, which has a direct impact on our productivity or work of any nature.

Two there is the
safety factor. When our cognitive performance is impaired, we make judgment
errors - sometimes these can be fatal.  

Without the proper rest, our brains grow more depleted, quite often this is signified by irritability, fatigue and distractedness.  At work, especially in the military, all to often we try to 'push through it', even though there is no energy reserve waiting for us.

Yes, there is a difference between combat neccessities and back home normal duties.  In the combat situations you don't have any control for the most part - if your lucky your adrenaline will kick in until you are in a position to get some rest.  Back home in normal duty situations you don't get that 'extra' energy burst.

Also, a persons mental thought processes become a factor at times as well.  The younger one is the more likely they have the 'superman' syndrome where they think they can handle anything and nothing can hurt them.  While some older 'seasoned' members believe they can beat the needs of proper sleep by consuming some form of caffene product to keep themselves awake.

A long time ago, as a young E-5, I went without sleep for about 72 hours (I didn't think much about it because back then us AGR's would come in for the night shift (2300-0700) at 2200 hours on the Friday night before Drill weekend - work the whole shift and then stay for the Drill day which back then usually ment we were there till around 1730 or 1800 hours.  Then you would leave to go home, get cleaned up, eat a meal and it would be just about time to start all over again.  So, working nights for us AGR's we would be up from Friday morning till Monday morning - then we could get some rest.) but of course, sleep deprivation is a cumulative thing so over time it makes you think you can handle it.  Well, the night in question I was on the flightline by myself (there were only a total of six of us working three shifts back then) and I was going down the taxiway in front of our Restricted Area at idle speed and dozed off (to me I thought I had just blinked) I opened my eyes to a crunching sound (which luckily I had the presense of mind to hit the brakes) I looked around to see one of our aircraft all around my vehicle.  I had driven under the rightside of the aircraft and hit the lower portion of the tail fin. 

I know this is one of the 'extreme' examples - but I wanted to make a point.  I thought I was fine and could handle the lack of sleep - I had done it numerous times before.  But these things catch up to you sooner or later and your actions or inactions can be disastrous and/or fatal.  You can look to the hospitals anywhere and see the same thing happening all the time with the 'interns' who have to work multiple shifts in a row.  Their judgement becomes flawed and mistakes happen that could have been avoided if proper sleep had been mandated.

There are very, very few times in a home station situation where the proper amount of sleep is trumped by a 'real world' situation.  All members should be looking out for each other, if it involves pushing things up the chain - do it.  The consequences from members with depleted sleep at home station can be a very hazardous situation that does not need to even exist.

I do know of other real life situations that have happened through the years - but I'll save those for another time.

For those of you still serving - be smart and be safe.