I was just reading "Major" by Rick Shelley and came upon a section where he
talks about "combat sleep." You dream and go through normal phases of sleep
but are still catalogueing what is going on around you. Is this true?
The reason I ask is I _always_ sleep like this unless I am
exhausted. When I was younger I would tell people I wasn't ever asleep because
I could replay the last 10 minutes or so of conversation in a room where I
was. I still wake up
every 40-50 minutes now and any odd sound in the house wakes
me up. It's a good thing I go to sleep just as quickly.
It's absolutely true. As one example, I used to sleep inside my M577 CP track
under the radio rack. I'd ignore most of the traffic and sleep on soundly but
wake up instantly when I heard my callsign.
[quoted original message omitted]
Might be for some guys. During Desert Storm I think I got something like 6 or
so hours of sleep during the whole '100 hours'... that was the first night of
the fighting after my division breached the Iraqi MLR... and I slept like a
log after wards. I remember waking up and seeing my whole company sprawled
basically where they could, a loader draped over his M240
sound asleep. I had no dreams personally- it was just so quick and
exhausting. Maybe the guys who had more prolonged combat experience can say.
I'll add this though, Rick Shelley is right about one thing- in Officer
Cadet he mentioned guys eating and sleeping as much as they could before
going 'on contract'... very true! The 'Nam vets (my platoon sergeant was on)
encouraged us to eat and sleep as much as possible before the action
started- both during the war and in peacetime FTXs. You just never know
when you'll see a hot meal and more than two hours at a time of sleep.
> It's absolutely true. As one example, I used to sleep inside my M577 CP
Kinda sent a jolt of lightning down your spine, didn't it?;)
HOPS VINCET! ATWTMATMUTATB
SLEEP like that? sure.
for instance, i (and we) were able to sleep like logs in front of the battery
axis of 6 ea 105mm howitzers firing H and I and fire, but when the battery
went to a fire mission mode, we were awake. or when the battery stopped
firing!
also movement of a man nearby would wake us up at the height of a battry fire
mission.
this happened at a FSB near HWY 13 called THUNDER 11.
i could sleep with a radio handset under my ear and ignor all call signs but
mine.
or be awaken from exhausted sleep by the sound of silence where there should
be night noises.
the sound of a person moving around nearby in the NDP would wke me instantly.
the ability to sleep when and where for as long as possible is an old combat
soldier habit.
> --- Roger Books <books@jumpspace.net> wrote:
I don't know about "combat sleep" but I do this on field problems. It's pretty
common. Once you're in for a little while, you develop the ability to sleep
standing up, walking around with your eyes open, sitting on a metal bench next
to a diesel engine, or whatever is necessary.
G'day,
> I don't know about "combat sleep" but I do this on
Actually this sounds like parenthood;P
Seriously do you see an improvement in the ability with age? There's a
mechanism in children/adolescents that prevents them waking in this way
(so siblings won't disturb them), but I'm yet to find any clear work on
whether there is a hard turn off age on this. Could be an issue in young
soldiers (probably younger than recruiting age for western armies) I guess.
Speaking for myself, not so much age, as practice. Some of it is
age-independent - I can remember sleeping in snatches while marching
back on a cold December night from a field exercise when I was a cadet in ROTC
at age 19 or so. And I remember being amazed at the time that I could sleep
while marching and toting about 60 pounds of gear. When I left the army after
12 years service at age 34, I usually "slept" in the field by grabbing
10-15 minute naps while travelling in my vehicle or during brief lulls,
whenever I got the chance. It probably added up to maybe two hours out of 24,
but I felt reasonable well rested. And as I said, I'd ignore the radio(s)
unless I heard my call sign, in which case I was instantly
awake -
which I don't remember being able to do as a 2nd LT.
[quoted original message omitted]
On 24-Mar-02 at 17:58, Beth.Fulton@csiro.au (Beth.Fulton@csiro.au)
wrote:
> Seriously do you see an improvement in the ability with age? There's a
I'm not sure I believe in the turn on age. As long as I can remember the
method of waking me up was to open my door. When we lived in the two story
house someone walking up the stairs was enough. Neither of my brothers was
like this.
G'day,
> I'm not sure I believe in the turn on age.
Whereas with me it "magically happened" when I was in my late teens. I went
from "you can drop a bomb on her, but if the nine hours haven't ticked over
she won't wake" to by the time Lachy was born "sleeps through Derek's
snores, but if a kid/dog/dependent so much as breaths wrong I'm up and
ready to go regardless of how long she's actually been asleep". Guess as with
everything it depends on the individual.
Cheers
I should not mention how I used to start back to college on I90 and come alert
on I71, and not remember taking the hour long bypass (I271) at all.