"[A]n overhaul of the Army’s physical fitness training field manual... rebranded this week as the FM 7-22 Holistic Health and Fitness manual... has chapters on setting goals, visualizing success, 'spiritual readiness' and, yes, the art of the nap."

The NYT reports.

“Soldiers can use short, infrequent naps to restore wakefulness and promote performance,” the new manual advises. “When routinely available sleep time is difficult to predict, soldiers might take the longest nap possible as frequently as time is available.”...

To promote good sleep, the manual warns soldiers to avoid video games, texting and other screen activity before bed, and recommends winding down by “listening to soothing music, reading, or taking a warm shower or bath” instead. It also says to avoid alcohol before sleep....

 I didn't even know you could take a bath in the Army.  There are bathtubs?

During deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, commanders often failed to prioritize sleep. Changing schedules, long duty shifts and overnight missions led to chronic fatigue that fueled a voracious dependency on energy drinks, which left many troops feeling frazzled....

The article discusses "feeling frazzled," but not suicide and PTSD. The mental problems of military personnel obviously extend to much more serious conditions than the feeling of frazzlement, but this article is trying to be a bit light, perhaps coaxing women into trying on the Army lifestyle:

The manual also has... a section on the importance of spirituality, with entries on meditation, journaling and how the “act of serving others” helps some soldiers realize the “interconnectedness of all things and people.”

The interconnectedness of all things and people — that would include the enemy. I'd like to hear more about how the realization of the interconnectedness of all things and people makes an effective military, but I'm not going to say it doesn't. It's never been my job to be prepared to do violence to my fellow human beings.

On the subject of making the Army woman-friendly, I must add that my mother was a WAC in WWII. I never heard my mother say one word against the Army, and I myself have the highest regard for the Army. I know for a fact that I wouldn't exist if it weren't for the Army, because that's where my parents met. I do have a wistful heart-twinge for the nonexistent offspring of the 2 marriages that would have happened if my mother and father had continued their young lives where they had grown up and gone to college. And that's enough journaling for me right now.

On the subject of feeling frazzled, I wondered where the word "frazzle" comes from. Is it a real word or slang? The OED marks it as "slang or colloquial (originally dialect)." What's it slang for? It comes from "fray" — what happens to the edges of a piece of cloth. "Fray" is used metaphorically to refer to human emotions, just like "frazzle," but "frazzle" sounds more nervous — something about those Zs, like "dazzle" and "sizzle" and "fizzle" and "drizzle."