LAUSR

U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Advanced Camp (AC) is a month-long capstone course that evaluates Cadet leadership. Although the relationship between sleep and objective performance is well established, less is known about how sleep may impact self-perception of performance, especially in the military context. This study examined the impact of habitual sleep on self-expected and objective AC performance. 577 Cadets (age 22.22 ± 2.74; 74.36% male) completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) at baseline to measure subjective sleep quality (Global; higher scores indicate poorer sleep quality) and total sleep time (TST) in the month before training. Self-expected AC performance was captured by asking Cadets to estimate what their final performance score would be and objective performance was determined from summary scores from Instructors. Performance discrepancy was calculated as the difference between Cadet’s expected and objective scores. Regression models assessed the predictive utility of habitual TST and Global on performance. Ordinal regressions showed that as Global increased, expected AC score also decreased with an OR of .684 (95% CI, -.694 to -.064), Wald χ2(1) = 5.56, p = .018. Further, Global independently predicted performance discrepancies, where the odds of a difference existing between a Cadet’s self-expected and their objective performance was .895 less likely for those with increasing Global (p = .028). Together TST and Global predicted discrepancy magnitude between Cadet self-expected and objective performance, F(2, 349) = 2.99, p = .05, with Global as a independent predictor p < .05. Independent findings related to TST were varied and warrant further testing. Cadets with poorer sleep quality prior to AC self-expected to perform worse and had discrepancies between their self-expected and objective performance when compared to those with higher sleep quality. TST enhanced the predictive power of Global when predicting magnitude of performance discrepancy. Therefore future research examining Global, while accounting for TST, is warranted to better understand how sleep may influence self-expectations of military performance. Support for this study came from the Military Operational Medicine Research Program of the United States Army Medical search and Development Command.