Casualty Exposure and Sleep Disturbance Among U.S. Active Duty Military Personnel: The Role of Religion

The purpose of this study is threefold. First, it explores the effects of combat casualty exposure on sleep disturbance among active duty military personnel in the United States. Second, it examines the extent to which religious factors offset the effects of combat casualty exposure on sleep disturbance. And third, it investigates how religious factors may buffer the effects of combat casualty exposure on sleep disturbance. Using a subsample of 13,238 soldiers that deployed to combat zones from the 2011 Health Related Behaviors Survey of Active Military Personnel, multivariate statistical analyses indicate that (1) combat casualty exposure increases the likelihood of sleep disturbance; (2) both religious salience and attendance offsets the effects of combat casualty exposure on sleep disturbance; and (3) religious salience buffers the effects of casualty exposure on sleep disturbances. Not only do these findings highlight the protective effects of religion on mental health outcomes, they also lend solid credence to the integrated stress process and stress buffering framework that incorporates the mortality salience hypothesis and the terror management theory in the military context. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.