Sleep is critical for sustaining the mental agility you need for success during crowd management and other high stress operations.³⁷ Even simple tasks such as driving, communicating, and maintaining alertness can be impaired by inadequate sleep (anything less than seven – nine hours every 24 hours).³⁸ Planning for sleep is an individual and organizational priority. In a 2014 study, over 50% of police officers examined were found to have poor sleep quality.³⁹

A 2012 study examined the impact of shift lengths on police officers’ performance, sleep, health, and quality of life. It found that there are “disadvantages related to 12-hour shifts, including greater reported levels of sleepiness and lower levels of alertness while at work as compared to those on 8-hour shifts. Because past researchers have indicated that people underestimate their fatigue levels (e.g., Rosekind & Schwartz, 1988), this finding should be reason for further concern.”⁴⁰ Additionally, “given the prior warnings by researchers related to fatigue in positions of public security, agencies should be concerned with managing fatigue in extended shifts, particularly those of 12- hours or more, inclusive of overtime work.”⁴⁰

Civil unrest can create situations where inadequate sleep becomes the norm. When you and your fellow officers do not get enough sleep, you accumulate a sleep debt that must be paid off but realistically cannot be made up. Therefore, it is critical that you make sleep a top priority as possible.