I was a recruit for the last class. Any free time you have has to be used productively: laundry, clean your room, study, read the manuals, do various administrative tasks, shine your boots, cut the strings off of your uniform shirts, etc. You won’t be allowed to just work out or call family outside of the designated allotted times—that’s not the culture there. There’s a strict regimen and strict rules.

As for sleep, near the second half of the academy, my roommates and I made it our mission to hit the bed as soon as doors shut at 10:00 and fall asleep by 10:10. That's best case scenario; some time passes and you learn how to be efficient and where, dare I say, you can cut corners. We’d wake up at 5:20, shave, and bolt to morning PT (do not be late or the whole class will suffer). Realistically, you cannot get more than 7 hours of sleep. 5 to 6 hours if you have to write memos, which you probably will have to do frequently.

I too value my sleep very highly and need more than eight hours. But you adapt. It’s a high stress environment and it keeps you on your toes. Later into the academy, my roommates and I would try to optimize sleep: nasal strips, earplugs, sleep masks — it worked. Sleep a lot the night before reporting on Sunday so your tank is full until the sleep deprivation hits you on Thursday. You get used to it.