How much sleep does an average West Point cadet get?

It is honestly cadet-dependent. I know cadets who sleep from 2300-0630. Some sleep from 0100-0630, and depending on the efficacy of your time management skills, some cadets end up not sleeping at all for a day or so (all-nighter to complete assignments).

There are 4 different types of weekends at the academy:
B (base, so the whole weekend is yours),
F (football; game usually on Saturday, but kind of turns into a B weekend after the game is over)
A/C (Commandant's training; some type of military development from early Saturday morning till about noon)
A/D (Dean's weekend; the focus is on academics, could be like a B weekend if you opt not to do any work, but I don't suggest this)

On B weekends, you can sleep as much as you'd like. On F weekends, you'll probably be up early Saturday morning to prepare for a football game, then you can nap afterward. A/C training typically ends before noon, so you can sleep as much after that, but you'll still be up pretty early to jumpstart the training. A/D weekends you can sleep as much as you'd like also. Of course, Sunday you can sleep how much you desire as well, but there will be a recall formation in the evening for accountability purposes. Sometimes this recall formation may be on a Monday due to a 3-day weekend.

For summer training, your amount of sleep will depend on the detail (CBT, CFT, CLDT, etc.) that you participate in. For beast, I remember going to bed around 2330 and waking up 0530-0600. Keep in mind that your cadre is always one step ahead of you, so they go to bed later than you and wake up earlier than you. For CFT, I went to sleep whenever I wanted, but I still had to wake up around 0600 to PT. You will PT almost every day during your summer detail. Concerning MIADs (Air Assault, Airborne, Sapper, etc.), I can't offer much perspective there. I haven't gone to any of those schools.

So obviously this is a rather expanded response to your initial question, but just to be concise, I would guesstimate that on average, cadets tend to get between 5-8 hours of sleep throughout the academic year and summer training. Weekends are slightly more difficult to predict, but perhaps an average of 7-10 hours for them.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!
 
Great question and one that is part of the great mystery of acclimating to service academy life. For most, High School is not a grind and things came easy. Your schedule was full, but manageable. A service academy will intentionally overload you during your first year (at a minimum) and force you to adjust your style to stay afloat. I thought I could just DO MORE and shoulder more work by staying up later. This was not a solid strategy. Going to sleep between 1-3am and then getting up before 6am was a recipe for disaster. It simply is not sustainable and performance in all areas suffers. The irony is that you are trying so hard to be everything to everyone and learn that you are failing everyone in the process.

At the time, in my situation, classroom lecture was far more valuable to consume than minor grade homework. Instructors would give a generous foot stomp when covering something that would be on an exam. I did not feel my high school prepared me for an A | B day schedule, nor did it prepare me for major | minor grade evaluation with an up front syllabus that outline the grading rubric for the entire course. Over time, I learned to understand the data in front of me and could make better decisions on how to spend the time.

My roommate for the first two years was not involved in extracurriculars, had tons of time to study, and was clearly superior to me academically. This presented to me as a situation where I was visibly struggling when compared to the closest peer to me in proximity (meaning you can see the obvious differences). And you start to have self doubt - like, why is it so easy for them? Am I not smart enough to be here? Did admissions make a mistake? In reality, the answer to that is no and everyone has different struggles. Your superpower is their weakness and that makes up the complimentary parts of the team.

During the first two years, you tend to be in core classes that may or may not be focused on your area of strength academically. For me, I was a fuzzy major and not a technical major. The first two years academically were the hardest, and then things got easier as I moved into majors classes because I genuinely liked the subject and it was in things I was already good at.

At the start of the 3rd year, we were forced to change roommates. This was an interesting environmental change for me as well. The new roommate laid down his rules early - "In this room, we go to bed by 1030 and limit focus time on homework to the hours of 8pm-1030pm." Initially, I was like.... um - ok??? However, it was brilliant. We actually relaxed, got good sleep, and could pay more attention in class. It worked for me and I was on the deans list every semester with roommate #2. Again, it was during a time with less military demands on your time and in classes that you enjoy, so there were other contributing factors -- but sleep is a good thing when you can get it.

The first year will be hard for a number of reasons. You are getting used to a new system, new expectations, have military knowledge requirements, academic requirements, physical requirements... and it is likely all very new and coming at you with people yelling at you.

Chaos. Confusion. Self Doubt. Panic. Self Preservation. Survival.... all words that describe that first year. I remind candidates to focus on what is important, and for me, that is the things that will get you kicked out. When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority so chose what you focus on wisely.
 
@minos described the sleep situation well--for me personally, I sleep about five-six hours a night. I have a difficult major and am involved in a lot of activities but consider myself to manage my time decently well. My roommate sleeps on average four hours a night as she does not work very efficiently.

It's all about your priorities. If you're fine with barely passing this place, not being super involved, and just want to graduate, you can get eight or nine hours of sleep every night. I will always prioritize experiences over schoolwork and therefore sleep less.

Summer training is a different animal. During CBT, you are guaranteed a certain amount of sleep. That does not carry on past that experience. CFT, after Plebe year, has a huge fluctuation in the amount of sleep you get depending on whether you are in the bays or out in the field that night. Sometimes you'll sleep a full night, other times you'll be getting up at 0200 or 0300 to go do a 8-mile ruck march. I can't speak for CLDT, CTLT, or AASLT/ABN yet but I can't imagine they're much different.

Caffeine gum is a must once you get out of Beast--though I don't recommend falling into the Monster/caffeine/nicotine cycle like many of my peers :)
 
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