With Veterans Day just a few days ago, this post is going to be focused not only on adult sleep, but specifically on how so many veterans deal with sleep challenges from their time in the military.
Our adult sleep coach, Kathryn, is going to share her personal experience with how her time in the Coast Guard really took a toll on her sleep, and even after retiring from the military and eventually being treated for sleep apnea, her insomnia was still so brutal.
In this post, she will share:
- Her personal experience with being a veteran and having sleep challenges
- The data about how common it is for veterans to have insomnia and/or sleep apnea
- Why veterans struggle so much with sleep
- The solution to helping veterans finally get restful sleep
- How an adult sleep coach can help veterans sleep
And more!
How Being in the Military Impacted My Sleep
I served as an active duty officer in the Coast Guard for 8.5 years. Because the Coast Guard is a small service, people have to wear multiple hats; you have multiple jobs and as they get stacked on top of each other, you get pulled in several directions.
Many of those for both me and my coworkers entailed some sort of sacrifice on our sleep in both direct and direct ways.
For example, I was a collateral duty watch officer in the command center dealing with things like search and rescue cases, and that’s a 24/7 mission – someone always has to be in there. I was also part of the law enforcement boarding team, which is an on-call position, as boardings could happen at any time of day or night. I was also part of the incident management team, dealing with things like pollution response, a boat hitting a bridge, and other emergencies.
All of these jobs were unpredictable! It was not uncommon in a given week to have normal office hour responsibilities on top of a 24-hour shift where you may or may not sleep depending on what other situations come up.
Due to those various roles, alone, my sleep schedule never got a chance to settle into a rhthym – it was different day to day and week to week.
There were also more indirect sleep disrupters, like failing to find someone on a search and rescue case; we found ourselves in heavy situations that take time to come down from.
It’s not surprising to believe that those in the military have a tougher time sleeping, but our sleep issues usually have deep roots. We often had an “always on call” mindset, meaning our cortisol levels were always high, not to mention our sleep schedules were never consistent.
Then you stack lifestyle adaptions onto that shift work. I started with energy drinks, but that quickly gave way to coffee, lots of soda, and quick microwave or vending machine meals. There were also long stretches when we didn’t get a lot of sunlight or regular exercise.
So it was a slow incremental decline. At first, I had trouble falling asleep after my night shifts, and that snowballed into not being able to fall asleep at night, and then eventually even naps became hit or miss.
I eventually got to a point where I embraced the reality that I was perpetually exhausted and just assumed this was the way things had to be. I didn’t know how to change it.
To learn more about Kathryn’s journey through insomnia (and sleep apnea!) and how she started sleeping well, read this post!
The Data on Veterans Having Insomnia and Sleep Apnea
I was at a social event recently where I started an interesting conversation with a neuroscientist (I believe that was his title, it was loud and I didn’t get a chance to double-check). He said something that caught my full attention as both a sleep coach and veteran, myself.
In his work, he observed that 90% of veterans deal with some form of sleep issues. A lot of questions came to mind but we unfortunately got interrupted and I never got a chance to circle back with him to ask my questions.
Since then, that statistic stuck with me. It seems unreasonably high – could sleep issues really impact almost every veteran?!
At the same time, my own experience and my relationships with other veterans lends credence to the thought that there might be a pervasive sleep problem for those who served in the military. Since I don’t have access to him or his research, I decided to dive in for myself to see what studies showed.
In honor of Veterans Day, here’s what I found!
While I found no published research to validate the 90% figure my new acquaintance indicated, the reality remains striking: military service members and veterans deal with sleep issues at a rate 2 to 3 times higher than the average population. (You can learn more here.)
It has been difficult to get accurate numbers for a variety of reasons, but a recent Veteran Affairs study indicated that over half of the participants had insomnia disorder, with numbers notably higher for those dealing with chronic pain or PTSD.
Another study found that while 27% of participants dealt with insomnia, 47% of the veterans had sleep apnea.
Regardless of exact numbers, it’s clear that part of the sacrifice that the military and veteran population make to keep the country safe is quality sleep.
The Problem: Why Veterans Often Have Sleep Challenges
Although the military is taking steps towards prioritizing sleep for the safety and well-being of its members, military culture still trends towards deprioritizing sleep. This could be the case for many reasons.
For example, the nature of the work. Service members are called to do strenuous jobs not bound to a traditional 40-hour work week. The operating environments are not typically conducive to quality sleep, especially while on duty or deployments.
Then, while figuring out how to adapt to these demands, men and women learn to rely on things like coffee, energy drinks, and other coping mechanisms, many of which are habit-forming and become less effective over time.
The medical and psychological impact of what veterans must see and do also have significant, lingering impacts.
Finally, there’s a perception within the military that “to need sleep is weak”; there’s an expectation that you should be able to get by just fine without it.
All of these can add up and take a toll on veteran’s sleep, and their mindset around sleep, in the long term. Often by the time a veteran is aware that they need to address sleep issues and they’re actually able to, they are deeply entrenched.
This doesn’t have to remain an area of inevitable struggle for veterans, though!
The Solution: How Veterans Can Get Sleep Help
The first step towards change is recognizing you have an issue with sleep and reaching out for help. You are not alone; this isn’t something you just have to suck up and deal with for the rest of your life, veteran or not.
Here are a few ways you can take that first step toward better sleep:
- Take advantage of the free resources the VA offers to veterans struggling to sleep.
- Prioritize getting checked for sleep apnea. Since roughly half of veterans deal with it, if you snore, are chronically tired, and/or deal with poor sleep quality, don’t wait until things get worse! Untreated sleep apnea carries many long-term health consequences.
- Think outside the box and build a team to help you. It can be helpful to manage your expectations for change by understanding that your sleep issues won’t have an overnight fix, and it’s likely that a single helping professional won’t have all the answers you need. It may take a team including people like your primary care provider, a sleep specialist, a therapist, functional health specialists, and a sleep coach, to get all the pieces that you need to solve the puzzle of your sleep issues.
- Recognize that insomnia can both be a symptom or it can be a stand-alone problem, even after the underlying issue is resolved. Treating chronic insomnia involves dealing with mindset, habits, and bodily factors.
How an Adult Sleep Coach Can Help Veterans
Like I mentioned, a sleep coach can often be one part of the team that can help veterans solve their insomnia or anxiety around sleep.
Professionally, my main focus is insomnia, and depending on the situation, I can also often help people struggling with sleep while shift working.
Personally, I’ve walked through a lot of paths with sleep, but I also have one foot in the mental health world as I’m also a counselor, so while I cannot, as an adult sleep coach, deal directly with things like sleep apnea or PTSD, I can point you toward people who can and have a plethora of resources to offer.
And once you’re getting that help, I can then work with you on your mindset around sleep, for example, and help you figure out if there are any lifestyle or physiological factors that are undermining your sleep. I can help you begin to deal with stress and find ways to decrease your overall stress so your sleep can improve.
There’s a lot that we can do together, and I want to help you get started on the path toward better sleep by connecting you to the resources you need. If you find yourself wanting to know more, shoot me an email at kathryn@viagraces.com, or schedule a free Discovery Call! I’d love to hear your story and chat about your options to finally get the sleep you deserve.
Conclusion
As an adult sleep coach, I want to raise awareness about sleep issues so that those struggling don’t give in to hopelessness. Veterans, you might think that being perpetually exhausted and simply surviving on fumes is normal. I used to think so, but it’s not true!
I know you’re accustomed to making the best of hard situations, but this is not one where you have to tough it out. I want to help you get started on the path toward better sleep by connecting you to the resources you need.
Finally, as a way to say thank you for your service and sacrifice, we want you to know that Via Graces offers a 20% discount on Adult Sleep Packages to veterans.
With Grace,
Kathryn
*If you find yourself dealing with overwhelming thoughts about your experience in the military, including suicidal thoughts, don’t hesitate to get help. You can get 24/7 support by calling 988 option 1, or texting 838255, or connecting through https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/.
