The French army also trains… to sleep well

In the army, “taking a nap is something you learn”. In front of a PowerPoint, a doctor in fatigues details the different types of rest that a soldier can plan to better carry out his missions, limiting the risk of accidents and the consequences for health.

In front of him, around ten soldiers, red eyes or heads in hands, struggling to stay focused. It’s 11:00 a.m. and they haven’t slept for almost 30 hours. They will stay awake for a total of 46 hours.

During this period, they will have to carry out physical exercises day and night: obstacle courses, swimming pool orientation, laser shots, driving on a computer… Courses on falling asleep techniques or sleep hygiene will also be given to them, at rest.

The French army makes fatigue a “real issue” in contemporary conflicts, where it is necessary “to endure, decide and act in ever more demanding conditions”. It prohibits the use of medications, unlike other countries.

Among the trainees, Marine, 32 years old, helmsman navigator in the French Navy. She regularly goes on missions, which last from one to six months. On ships, soldiers are posted on watch.

“The first two months we are in euphoria, happy to leave, everything is going well,” she tells AFP. But “fatigue accumulates and grows”, making sailors “less attentive to details and sometimes more irritable”, even if napping is a sanctified ritual on ships.

Today, “as in other professional environments”, “discussions around sleep are more and more uninhibited in the army”. “Someone who goes to sleep is not seen as weak,” continues the chief doctor at the Armed Forces Biomedical Research Institute (Irba), who prefers to remain anonymous.

Several factors degrade the quality of sleep of soldiers: frequent night work, impact of missions and “opex” (external operations) in very hot or cold environments, nights in uncomfortable environments…

Despite everything, there remains a “lack of knowledge” in the military community on the subject, assures Fabien Sauvet, professor at Irba, during a recent conference at the Military Academy of Defense Sports, located in Fontainebleau, emphasizing the interest in training.

With high-intensity conflicts, combat phases where soldiers sleep little or not are expected to “last, to be repeated,” he continues.

– “Exceptional situations” –

On the other hand, France has made the “strong” choice to strictly regulate the use of medicine by the military, says the doctor.

A 2015 ministerial instruction specifies that soldiers can use “sustained release caffeine” tablets, which provide caffeine delivery for 4 to 6 hours, useful for pilots who do not have access to a coffee maker for example.

Modafinil, an “awakening” drug used in the treatment of narcolepsy and distributed to French soldiers during the 1991 Gulf War, can only be used in “exceptional survival situations”, he adds. “Pilots have them in their ejection seats, for example.”

Sleep medications can also be prescribed in certain specific cases, if you need to sleep during the day, for example.

In other armies, the use of medicines is assumed. Recently, media reported on the use of Modafinil by Israeli pilots to carry out long flight missions at the start of the war in Iran.

Others are reviewing their strategy, like the Ukrainians. After four years of war launched by Russia in 2022, they believe that the “risks of taking these drugs are greater than the benefits”, explains Professor Sauvet.

Increased risk of illness, injuries, but also bad decisions, he explains. “Major” undesirable effects, such as risks of “addiction and psychiatric disorders”, can also appear in the long term.

Work is also underway to ensure that memory is less impaired by sleep debt. Countries are thus replacing an hour of weekly physical activity with cognitive training, underlines Professor Sauvet, which can be valuable for pilots using complex weapons systems, or reservists without regular training.