Thank you! Your questions pretty much match mine. Tho I agree with all else you say about the military, I would have stuck with “you’re solving sleep deprivation by encouraging people to have MORE sleep deprivation?” It makes zero sense at all.

Coffee is used for stimilation — that’s a given. Which means that the heavy coffee drinkers will make their insomnia WORSE. What else will help cure the ravages of sleep deprivation? MORE SLEEP. Then eventually you wake up SHARPER, and far more rarin’ to go than you would feel if you drank the perfectly designated amount of coffee.

Everything in this article contravenes what every other sleep doc would say about how to treat sleep deprivation. I should know. I’ve dealt with insomnia & sleep deprivation issues for more than 40 years [I’m in my 70s]. I’m doing better now because I finally got a C-PAP, stopped worrying about whether I would fall asleep, and listen to meditative music designed to encourage sleep.

Right now, sleep deprivation is a major KILLER. No matter how much coffee you drink, no matter how “alert” you are because you drank the right amount of caffeine, it’s going to take a huge toll on your body. Heart failure, diabetes, complications from diabetes [having peripheral neuropathy is dreadful for gun-carrying, marching soldiers!], intransigent obesity that sticks with you no matter how much you diet or exercise, and all the other complications resulting from that obesity.

But hey, let’s face it. The military doesn’t care about that. As long as you are “good to kill” they are happy. Well, that is, as long as they have enough cannon fodder to keep a war going. [Given the imminent trump war with Iran, that’s particularly anxiety-producing.]