difference between life and death . That ’ s true on the fire ground , and it ’ s true for ourselves .

What better place to start than with the bedrock of wellness ?

Sleep .

As a firefighter , this is the statistical reality : two to three calls per night can equate to missing out on four hours of sleep a night – half of what the US Center for Human Sleep Science , the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization recommend .

This means instead of getting 2,920 hours of sleep a year ( eight per night ), firefighters at even moderately busy houses on a 24 / 48 schedule are experiencing sleep loss of 884 hours a year . The simple math : firefighters are missing out on 36 days of sleep every year .

Over a career , that ' s 900 days of sleep loss . Almost three years of sleep

deprivation . According to Harvard , this type of sleep debt increases mortality by up to 40 %.

And while less studied , volunteers and part-time firefighters are in the same sleep-deprivation boat . They may run fewer calls , but are maintaining full-time jobs and often volunteering well past typical retirement age .

Ironically , sleep is what most people have at the bottom of their priority list . In a profession where it ’ s already hard enough

to come by , a lack of sleep still appears to be a nonsensical badge of honor . Thankfully , this is changing . We ’ re realizing that sleep debt carries a huge interest rate .

Dr . Andrew Huberman , a tenured associate neuroscience professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and host of the popular podcast “ Huberman Lab ,” explained the results of recent studies on sleep in his Dec . 8 , 2022 episode .