According to an October 20 posting by Peter S. Green on The Skyline Task & Purpose website, combat-related insomnia is taking a toll on U.S. veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. A report from Van Winkle’s cited it as the most unnoticed, under-prevented, and untreated injury that servicemembers face, a major problem when the best treatment for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is sleep.
As the longest war in U.S. history drags through its 13th year, America’s armed services are discharging an increasing number of soldiers with serious sleep problems. Exact numbers are hard to lock down, but the RAND Corporation found earlier this year that 48.5 percent of service members reported such poor sleep quality, it would qualify as a “clinically significant sleep disturbance” on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. With roughly two million U.S. veterans of the wars in Iran and Afghanistan, that means some 900,000 active or retired service members may have significant sleep disturbances or sleep disorders
