Sleep Disorders Among Troops Are More Damaging Than We Realize

I didn't sleep well while deployed (and I had it better than any of the combat guys), the first year back was equally bad, and even now my sleep quality is far lower than before I got deployed... (as evidenced by the melatonin and prescription sleep pills in my cabinet).
circadian scarring... interesting to put a name on it...

I understand the part during the job. In some situations sleep becomes a last priority in order to keep everyone alive on the battlefield. I think the issue is mostly on the VA and their SOP to medicate for everything. I was diagnosed with clinical insomnia in 2009, and haven't had more than 3-5 broken hours of sleep a night since 2006 with an occasional crash day/night of about 12 hours. I received plenty of talk about what prescriptions I could use to medicate the problem without any real life advice. I had seen too many of my friends/Soldiers medicated to the point they were shells of their former selves by the VA. Instead of going on about how I was broken, or how my life was miserable due to exhaustion I put insomnia to work for me. I used my lack of sleep as more study time in college back then, and now I use it as extra time to read/answer questions/work Soldier issues. I'm not saying that lack of sleep is fun; I'm just saying that there are ways to turn what you perceive as a problem or disability into a positive aspect of your life, and the VA needs to invest more into counseling and less into narcotics.