Can a brief survey identify U.S. Army Soldiers who are behaviorally and genetically resilient to sleep loss?

Abstract

There are replicable inter-individual differences in cognitive responsivity to sleep loss. Genetic allele variations have been linked with behavioral differences in cognitive performance under these conditions, yet less burdensome tests or screeners are not available. This study tested whether a survey can classify U.S. Army Soldiers as cognitively vulnerable or resilient to sleep loss and whether Soldiers in these differentiated groups have the expected allele variants. Six genetic targets were sequenced from 75 Soldiers. Cognition was tested after a night of total sleep deprivation during a military exercise. The Iowa Resilience to Sleeplessness Test (iREST) was administered. A Wilcoxon Rank Sum test showed the iREST score of 2.5/5 differentiated groups behaviorally on all cognitive tests. Chi-squared tests showed that for the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) gene, 82% of behaviorally vulnerable soldiers had alleles linked with vulnerability, compared with 41% of behaviorally genetic soldiers. If these findings are replicated, the iREST could be used to help military leaders make decisions about personnel placement when sleep loss is unavoidable.