Navy SEALS have 'hell week' session which doesn't allow them to sleep for five days
Navy SEALS have what's called a 'Hell Week' session that doesn't allow them to sleep for five days, so it's no surprise so few candidates manage to make it to the end.
Described as being the hardest job in the military, to become a member of the special force you have to go through some intense training.
But no part of the program is more challenging than Hell Week, which is said to be the 'defining event' of BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition) training.
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According to NavySeals.com, the week consists of five-and-a-half days of 'cold, wet, brutally difficult operational training' with practically no rest in between.
“Hell Week tests physical endurance, mental toughness, pain and cold tolerance, teamwork, attitude, and your ability to perform work under high physical and mental stress, and sleep deprivation,” the website explains.
Candidates take part in running, swimming, paddling, carrying boats on their heads, doing log PT, sit-ups, push-ups, rolling in the sand, slogging through mud, paddling boats and doing surf passage.
Though they are constantly in motion, the site says 'being still can be just as challenging', especially when you're up to your waist in water with the cold sea wind battering your skin.
"Mud covers uniforms, hands, faces - everything but the eyes," it continues. "The sand chafes raw skin and the salt water makes cuts burn."
Personally I wouldn't last five seconds, and it appears it's even too much to handle for soldiers who have been waiting to try out as a Navy SEAL their whole lives, with only 25 percent making the cut.
One of the hardest parts about it is you're going through all of these physical challenges with major sleep deprivation.
This was revealed by Rob O'Neill - a former Navy SEAL who was involved in the killing of Osama Bin Laden - when he recently appeared on Joe Budden's YouTube series.
Elaborating on the topic, he says: "There's a part of training called Hell Week, which is when they wake you up on Sunday and then you don't get to sleep until Friday.
"And you run about seven marathons in that time with boats on your heads."
Clearly shocked at the revelation, Budden jumps in to say: "Wait, Sunday to Friday you cannot sleep?"
O'Neill adds: "You don't sleep, you're moving the whole time... and that's where most SEAL candidates drop out. It gets hard."
For those who can't hack it, they have to let their superiors know they're tapping out by ringing a bell three times.
O'Neill finishes up the segment with some words of wisdom, telling the host: "You'd surprise yourself.
"When I started Hell Week that same instructor said, 'You're about to go to war for the first time and your enemy is all your doubts, all your fears, and everyone you know back home that told you you couldn't do this.'"
Although he made it through the intense training program, not many people do - and in some cases it can have fatal consequences.
Daisy Phillipson