THE ECONOMIC COSTS OF IMPAIRED PRODUCTIVITY AS A RESULT OF INSUFFICIENT SLEEP ONBOARD U.S. NAVY SHIPS

In 2021, the Government Accountability Office reported the U.S. Navy’s fatigue management failure to Congress. Understanding the economic costs of inadequate sleep provides an avenue to achieving fatigue management goals. This study aims to determine the economic costs of impaired productivity due to insufficient sleep on U.S. Navy shipboard operations. Utilizing sleep duration data collected by the Naval Postgraduate School Crew Endurance Team and a RAND sleep study, we assessed working time lost in U.S. Navy shipboard operations. We discovered that Sailors sleeping fewer than 6 hours per day lost three underway days more per year and Sailors sleeping 6 to 7 hours per day lost two underway days more per year compared to the population of Sailors receiving sufficient sleep of 7 to 9 hours per day. Correlating the working time lost to military personnel costs, we determined that a fleet sleep average of 6.5 hours per day yields 137,997 working days lost at a cost of $31.9 million. The results indicate that insufficient sleep is not only a detriment to the mission but to the budget of the Department of the Navy. Further research is necessary to explore limitations that contribute to the cumulative financial burden of insufficient sleep.
Lieutenant, United States Navy
Lieutenant, United States Navy
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