At a two-day Sleep Summit, military leaders and researchers linked sleep loss to degraded performance, safety, and warfighter readiness.

June 24, 2026 by Jason Benedek

Military leaders, researchers, and clinicians gathered for the Uniformed Services University's (USU) Sleep and Fatigue Management Summit, co-hosted by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, United States Air Force, and in partnership with the Defense Health Agency. The summit was built around a single message: sleep is a measurable component of warfighter readiness. Research presented at the event found that nearly 85% of deployed service members get less than the recommended seven hours of sleep a night, a deficit speakers tied to performance, safety, and long-term health.

For many in uniform, sleep is often sacrificed. For many in uniform, sleep is the first thing sacrificed. Speakers at the summit argued that the cost of that habit shows up in the field.

Ms. Susan Orsega, Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Health Services Policy and Oversight, put the stakes in operational terms, casting rest as a matter of combat capability. "Sleep is not a luxury, sleep is a weapon," she said.

Other speakers throughout the summit reinforced the point with scientific evidence and combat experience. Dr. Theresa Santo, acting director of Warfighter Performance Optimization in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Readiness, highlighted the growing recognition within the Department of War that sleep is "mission essential" to performance and survival.

Santo did not soften the impact. "Sleep deprivation is actively degrading our warfighters," she said. "We routinely send impaired warfighters into the most unforgiving, high-stakes environments on earth, and this isn't just an administrative issue. It costs us critical equipment, degrades our mission effectiveness, and tragically, it costs us our lives."

According to Santo, most service members report sleeping six hours a night or less - a level of fatigue she compared to the cognitive impairment of being legally intoxicated.

While policy leaders work to address the issue at a systemic level, other speakers described how modern warfare is making sleep harder to get.

Dr. Terry Rauch, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Health Readiness Policy and Oversight, drawing on ongoing research with Ukrainian armed forces, described a battlefield environment where rest is nearly impossible. With constant drone surveillance and evolving combat tactics, he said, traditional rest cycles and safe rear areas have effectively disappeared.

Rauch framed sleep as a biological hard limit. "Sleep is not a logistical luxury, it is a rigid biological domain," he said. "The human brain cannot be hardened against the metabolic necessity of sleep."

Prolonged sleep deprivation, Rauch explained, leads to impaired decision-making, emotional instability, and involuntary "microsleeps," in which parts of the brain briefly shut down. In high-threat environments, he said, these effects can be fatal.

Rauch cast the consequence in stark terms. "Sleep management is no longer just a combat multiplier," he said. "It is the only defense against total cognitive, physiological, and basically moral collapse."

Together, the speakers explained that the science of sleep is already well understood, but modern war is making rest harder to get than ever, leaving soldiers little safe time to recover.

Summit participants emphasized that solutions are possible. From improved fatigue management policies to innovative field strategies and greater cultural awareness, leaders are working to bridge the gap between research and real-world application.

In closing, Orsega returned to the summit's theme, calling sleep one of the most important tools a warfighter has.