What about sleeping?!

[souman]

How many hours are you allowed to sleep>? I've heard that 6 hours is the normal amount, but in some places it is even less. I mean, is that even healthy? + every day the psycical work is exhausting and therefore the body needs to rest, isn't it? For me between 8 and 10 hours is enough. I do understand that I won't enjoy that privilage in the army..

[daz89]

Are you talking about basic training?

When I was in you were lucky to get 5-6 hours sleep for the first 5 weeks. After 5 weeks you pass of the square and are able to go to breakfast etc by yourself instead of as a platoon. We used to get food from the shop the night before and skip scoff, that way we got a longer lie.

The first 5 weeks are tough, you will be up most nights ironing and cleaning. Sometimes you won’t get to bed until 1 - 2am (maybe even later) and you will have to be up at around 5 am. It’s a struggle trying to stay awake in a lecture after that! You do get used to the early starts though but its long days and everyone gets tired.

Suppose you could say its what makes leave and days off even better

[souman]

Oh, many thanks mate, really helpful. That was what I was afraid of. I am not worried from the physical demands, but from the lack of sleep. I know that if i don't sleep long enough on the other day I feel soo tired. I don't know how you guys coped with this!

Are you still serving? Where do/did you serve?

[daz89]

I left when I was in training mate, Im planning on joining up again sometime this year.

Lack of sleep isnt really a problem, remember its only that bad for the first 5 weeks, after that you get a little more freedom so I wouldnt worry about it. You'll be kept busy with other things so you wont notice how tired you are until you start falling asleep in the middle of a lecture! Remember you'll be in a platoon with about 50 lads that are in the same boat as you, they will all be feeling the same. Try to organise your kit so when your finished a days training you know what needs to be done before you get your bed. Also make sure everythings ready for the next day aswell, you dont want to be running about in the morning looking for peices of clothing or having to iron at 5am! You dont want to be late or turn up missing a peice of kit either!

Also after a couple weeks you get better at ironing, so a job that maybe would of took an hour or two at the start of training might only take you 20-30 mins;Giving you even more extra free time.

How far along the application are you?

[Tab]

Don't you get guard duty any more while you are in training, that used to be two on guard duty and two hours sleeping through the night and back to training the next day.

[sportbilly42]

For me between 8 and 10 hours is enough.

10 hours?!!! TEN hours sleep!!? Are you kidding? A day??!

Souman, are you my idle sloth of a son in disguise? He's half yoof and half dormouse... I'm sure there's velcro patches on his body which means he just can't get out of bed and be separated from his duvet.... You're sleeping your life away mate. Seriously... You only need six hours absolute MAX!

In training you'll get less. Often you'll only be grabbing an hour here and there as you are being changed from being an idle civvy into a fighting soldier. Often you work 24 hours solid without a wink. If you're on guard duty during training (do they not do that any more?) you'll be up all night then be expected to join the troop and carry on your training day.

It's obviously all changed since my day but do you not do 'Sweat Nights' (or 'Bull Nights') in basic these days...? 'Quick Change Parades'? Snap block inspections... General beasting? It can't have changed THAT much surely? It's not like I left decades ago...

The sleep deprivation drills are all part of the well established process of chipping away at the civvy and turning you into someone that's disciplined and organised.. Sorting the men from the boys and the wheat from the chaff....


They need to find out who can hack it and who can't. Who turns into a blubbering wreck because they're not getting their 12 hours zzzz cuddled up to their teddy and who knuckles under and cracks on. These early learning blocks make you better organised. The better organised you learn to become in training the more sleep you might end up with. By that I mean that if your bedspace is in shit state when an inspection happens you're going to be spending all night cleaning the thing up until your training NCO is happy...

In training you (used to) get this discipline drilled into you so that you could survive in the field.


Sweat nights involved cleaning the accommodation (often throughout the night if the training NCO wasn't happy or if the blocks were in crap state) Urinals you could drink from, shitters you could wash your hands in, everything was cleaner than clean and every bit of brass would be Duraglitted to death... and it was a continual process... (they probably get someone in to do that for the sprogs these days <sighs > as it probably infringes some sort of Human Rights legislation or Geneva Convention...)

Short answer... Sleep? yeah you'll get some but don't count on spending hours in your scratcher... Your training NCOs will have FAR more interesting things for you to do...........

[souman]

How far along the application are you?

Oh, mate, I'm still in college.. I haven't started my application yet, but I want to be as much informed as possible. I guess, this way I would be prepared for everything and I would be able to enjoy it.

Souman, are you my idle sloth of a son in disguise? He's half yoof and half dormouse... I'm sure there's velcro patches on his body which means he just can't get out of bed and be separated from his duvet.... You're sleeping your life away mate. Seriously... You only need six hours absolute MAX!

wow, that was ....astonishing from you, mate. Harsh, but 10x anyway. I'm 17, I don't know what am I expected to do all night. I mean, I don't work, I don't go to parties that often, I do my studies during the day...etc. You will say know " this kid, why is he wasting my time..?" , but I am really dedicated to the army and I can assure you that this isn't just a whim or something..

Overall, thanks really, that was very comprehensive answer and I appreciate it. I think that the sleeping issue will appear only at the beggining, as daz89 said. So, I would be allright! Still many questions to ask, but I think they will be answered along the way. many thanks again mates

[daz89]

When I was in training we didn’t do guard duty, but we did get work parades or staff parades if we done something wrong. Staff parades were an inspection at the drill shed am 21:00 if I mind right, you had to be immaculate. Work parades are pretty self explanatory.

Sportbilly we did still have 'sweat nights'.. but only if there was an inspection the next day or if the block was in a crap state as you said. As you said everything had to be spotless we were up until 2am one morning just cleaning the block, after that we had our lockers to do.

All good fun

[sportbilly42]

wow, that was ....astonishing from you, mate. Harsh, but 10x anyway. I'm 17, I don't know what am I expected to do all night. I mean, I don't work, I don't go to parties that often, I do my studies during the day...etc. You will say know " this kid, why is he wasting my time..?" , but I am really dedicated to the army and I can assure you that this isn't just a whim or something..

You're not wasting anyone's time mate, I choose to contribute a small amount of my time to this site.... It's just banter with (hopefully) some useful info thrown in for good measure. And my opinions may be WAY WAY out of date to what happens these days..

Ref the need to sleep because there's nothing much else to do, can you not join a sports club, gym or go out running/cycling? Get involved with something (maybe there's an evening activity thing that flicks your switch on at the college you go to?) Keep yourself occupied. That's partly what they do to you during training with the keeping busy thing. It keeps your mind constantly occupied and busy and stops anyone from feeling homesick... Too busy for any of that.....

[Tab]

When I was in training, the training took just ten weeks and after that you were shipped out to many of the hot spots and thrown in the front line. Training was hard and very concentrated to try and get you to stage where you were not a liability to your self or any one else. These days with all the further education the new recruits have had it only takes six months before they are fully trained

[xuiton]

The fact is, human adults need 8 hours a sleep a night to remain healthy. Anything less is unhealthy; after the first 5 weeks or basic training, do you get a full 8 hours?

[Wholley]

Anything less is unhealthy; after the first 5 weeks or basic training, do you get a full 8 hours?

Either this is a bite or you need to re-think your career choice.
I would say incoming is a lot less healthy than missing a few zee's.

[Tab]

I never sleep for eight hours it is a waste of time, the most I ever sleep is six hours. When I was working you would often finish an early shift at 2 pm and be back at work for a night shift at 10 pm. During that time you had to travel to and from your place of work get some thing to eat play with the kids and do a few odd jobs around the place and grab a couple of hours of shut eye, yet I am still here plodding along.

[gunner75]

Thatcher ran the country on 4 hours! I run my company on 4 hours kip too! when i was a recruit initially Id be flapping away till the early hours sorting my kit and making it all prim n proper for the next days inspection/parade. You eventually fine tune that and I found it was achieavable to get in your pit for about 11pm to 12. However I helped out other lads who were struggling more often than not - amazing how lots of lads just cant get to grips with ironing and sorting themselves out in general. We didnt do guard duty although I did actually do it while in 4 Para. In the RAF Reg it was show parade upon show parade, daily inspections and bull nights galore till your eyeballs bled, lots of shouting and shining. Worth it though when the leash is slackened a bit and your allowed off camp at the weekends. Best times ever

[timex]

Plan on 4hrs, anything else is a bonus!