Posted: 6/12/2007 6:57:16 PM EDT
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Some guys I train with a lot and I were talking, and the subject applies from our racing directly to survival/E&E/BO When you are moving fast with a team, and as a team you decide to sleep, you really need to be able to go right to sleep right then. Our team might stop for 20 minutes or 3 hours, then move again for another 20 hours or more. So "sleeping time" counts. One guy I know was moving with a group, and when they slept, for say, 3 hours, it might take him almost an hour to get to good sleep, so he was really getting 2/3's of the sleep that everyone else was. After several days, it started to take it's effect and the whole group slowed. My buddy had raced with a guy from special forces whom, from the time they decided to sleep, could set an alarm, put on all his extra clothing, get in his bivy bag and be out stone cold in under 60 seconds... Any ideas how being able to sleep in uncomfortable situations, effectivly and quickly is taught to our special forces guys? It's important enough that for big long events, I think making sure everyone in the group can sleep hard and fast is important. How practical it is for BO/E&E with a family; probably not. But it would certainly be useful in other situations. |
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my problem isn't getting to sleep, it's waking up quickly. When I lay down after exerting myself all day (much like being at work since I'm a landscaper) I can be out in under 5min. I work from 7am to 530-6PM Monday through Thursday. I wake up at 5:30AM every day, usually going to bed around 1AM. I find I need 3 hrs of sleep to be able to function and be rested, 2hrs means I'm a slug, 1hr is a nap and I get a boost of energy, 4-5hrs of sleep and I'm fully rested. Really the toughest part for me every morning is waking up at 5:30 and forcing myself to get out of bed....don't get paid enough for what I do and work sucks, but it pays the bills. When I'm out hiking if I hike until dark I can usually make camp and be asleep within 10min assuming that I have firewood near at hand and can get a decent little camp fire going. Though I usually stop 2 hours or less before sun down and gather up wood and everything and get a fire going and watch the sun set over the mountains....just the little things that make life great  <edit> oh and when I camp, asleep at 11PM to 12PM, up before the sun rises (3-4am usually). I usually sit around and read a book or write for hours when I'm alone in the woods. Helps me clear my head and relax. |
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We called them "combat naps" in the Navy. 20-30 minutes can refresh you a bunch. I routinely worked 18 hours a day six days a week with Sunday being a day off I only worked 14 hours - unless something was broken. I was responsible for things like the navigational gyro, and wind and speed sensors, and other combat systems all needed for the weapons and defense systems. Add two of the three biggest attitude boosters - satellite TV and telephones and there were days where I worked until I couldn't. I'd always have a fresh set of eyes keep and eye on me to make sure I didn't do something too silly dangerous/stupid. My limit was about 20 hours and then I needed to relax for about 20-30 minutes in my pit taking a "combat nap" - then it was back to work. That works out to about 40 hours for me and then it's lights out and I start losing the ability to concentrate and I get clumbsy. Stupid and dangerous ... night - night time. |
| If I sit for more than 10 minutes I can fall asleep. I get 30 minute breaks at work every 2 hours. I usually rest in place and get about a 20 minute nap. I am GTG after that. It is nice to sleep and get paid for it. I just put myself in a calm state and let my mind drift. |
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+1 on not being able to wake up quickly. If I'm just taking a cat nap then its not a problem and can be reacting before I am fully awake but if I'm tired and have "crashed" well then good luck getting me up. EDIT: I'm not special forces so I dont know if they have special "fall asleep really fast" training or not but in the infantry I just kinda learned how. I know this doesnt really seem to answer your question but after a while I just learned that when you get a chance to rest you take full advantage. By the time I went on my first deployment I was able to sleep through mortars being droped (our guys firing a mission for another platoon). While your in the "learning stage" some foam earplugs and a beanie pulled over your eyes does help though. |
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I think we're straying a little here from what Huck originally asked... (or at least what I think he asked) Are there ways to TRAIN yourself to be able to go lights out at the drop of a hat? I get what he's saying -- if you only have a limited amount of time to sleep (which we all do, I guess, but I'm thinking to the extreme end of the spectrum) you want to maximize it in good solid sleep, not just staring off calculating Pi (no, not PIE) in your head ad infinitum. It's kind of funny that this came up, because just yesterday I was going through some of my older throne room reading and came across a 2-year old issue of "Guns" magazine (Yeah, I know, I should splurge for some new reading material). Anyway, at the back, there was an article by John Connor addressing some of the "desirable attributes of professional soldiers." Of those, within the top two was the ablility to "drop off to sleep like somebody tripped a switch on the back of your noggin, anyplace, anytime." So any hints on how to program yourself for a rapid shutdown in times of need, especially when your accomodations are slightly less than the Four Seasons? |
While laying flat on your back, if possible, take veerrrryyyy deep breaths (in through your nose, out through your mouth). Try to hold each one for about a 4 count. Within a minute or so, having relaxed physically to the point of feeling your back almost (I know this will read cheesy, but it's true...heheh) melt into the surface on which you're laying, you should start to feel as if you'll drift off. The mental part is exceedingly important, of course, too. Force yourself to just put all else out of your mind, concentrate on your breathing. Especially if you don't have much time to sleep, and you know this going into a nap, you should be able to wake up much faster. Most people don't start hitting deep enough sleep for REM and such to begin for roughly an hour, so your sleep will be light enough to rest you considerably more than otherwise yet not so deep as to slow your waking too badly. Oh, in case anyone wonders...I'd really rather not get into where I learned this method, so just try it for yourself. It's always worked great for me. You can try practicing this even when you don't really want an outright nap until you get the hang of it. Obviously, do NOT practice while driving or operating machinery, etc...Just in case.  |
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While laying flat on your back, if possible, take veerrrryyyy deep breaths (in through your nose, out through your mouth). Try to hold each one for about a 4 count. Within a minute or so, having relaxed physically to the point of feeling your back almost (I know this will read cheesy, but it's true...heheh) melt into the surface on which you're laying, you should start to feel as if you'll drift off. The mental part is exceedingly important, of course, too. Force yourself to just put all else out of your mind, concentrate on your breathing." This is kinda what we learned, combined with some muscle tension then relaxing. Some of the stuff seems kinda new age but it works. Could be used for minor pain relief also. We were kicked to see if we were doing it for real. |
| Tell you the truth? It's just practice like anything else. There is no special training combat types get to fall asleep. But if a group of combat types stop for more than 10-15mins half will be asleep. You will figure it out on your own. Reality is that if there is a nuclear disaster you are trying to escape, you will not sleep for about a week. If the shtf on a tuesday, you should be good without sleep for atleast a week before you start to realize it. Then (a week later) you will just fall asleep whenever you put your head down. Pretty simple concept. |
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there exists a pic of me sleeping siting up in the back of a C130 with my head tied up to the cargo net with a bandana, dead to the world.... then a few years later I learned that one can wake up Monday morning and do nothing but study nuclear power, drink coke, take ephedrine until you fall asleep on Friday afternoon.... 
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Same here. I'd make the long flight to Crete. Tie my head up and I'm good to go. If I really needed to stretch, I'd lay on on the equipment pallets. |