Daily insufficient sleep and active duty status

We assessed the relationship between active duty status and daily insufficient sleep in a telephone survey.

U.S. military service status (recent defined as past 12 months and past defined as >12 months ago) and daily insufficient sleep in the past 30 days were assessed among 566,861 adults aged 18 to 64 years and 271,202 adults aged ≥ 65 years in the 2009 to 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys.

Among ages 18 to 64 years, 1.1% reported recent active duty and 7.1% had past service; among ages ≥ 65 years, 0.6% reported recent and 24.6% had past service. Among ages 18 to 64 years, prevalence of daily insufficient sleep was 13.7% among those reporting recent duty, 12.6% for those with past service, and 11.2% for those with no service. Insufficient sleep did not vary significantly with active duty status among ages ≥ 65 years. After adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics, health behaviors, and frequent mental distress in multivariate logistic regression models, respondents aged 18 to 64 years with recent active duty were 34% more likely and those with past service were 23% more likely to report daily insufficient sleep than those with no service (p < 0.05, both).

Adults with either recent or past active duty have a greater risk for daily insufficient sleep.