ABOVE: FLICKR, ARCTIC WOLVES
Neurobiologist Allison Brager knows the effects of sleep deprivation first hand. When the Army officer and chief of the Sleep Research Center at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research traveled to Kuwait earlier this year to monitor sleep habits among soldiers, she stayed awake for 45 hours straight as she traveled with a unit engaged in a marksmanship exercise. “When we came off the range in the morning and traveled back to the base, I felt shaky,” she tells The Scientist. “Physiologically, I didn’t feel right.”
But these are the conditions soldiers deal with repeatedly throughout their careers. In addition to sleep deprivation, combat personnel are at high risk of traumatic brain injury, either as a result of explosive devices or from the kickback on shoulder-mounted munitions, Brager explained today (November 5) at a press conference at the annual Society for Neuroscience conference in San ...
