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Why is Hell Week considered a difficult part of Navy SEAL training?

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U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command training mission — special operations warfare Members of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command training for water rescue, 2007.

"Hell Week" is considered a notoriously difficult component of the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training program because it subjects candidates to more than five days of intense, near-constant physical exertion. During this period, candidates are permitted only about four hours of sleep in total, testing their physical and mental endurance to the extreme.12

This phase is part of an overall six-month training regimen often described as the most rigorous in the U.S. military, designed to prepare personnel for the high-stakes demands of special operations warfare. Due to the intensity of these requirements, only about one-quarter of a typical candidate class successfully completes the full BUD/S training program.1