A Forbes report explores the relationship between sleep and work productivity and offers employees tips for a good night’s sleep.
In the past few years, successful organizations have finally started to view sleep deprivation for what it is: a productivity killer and employee health issue. As a result, they’re actively pursuing ways to gently encourage their workers in the right direction.
“A growing awareness of the dangers of sleep deprivation on health — and therefore, its impact on insurance costs and worker productivity — is prompting companies to try to improve their employees’ rest,” says Jena McGregor of The Washington Post. “Goldman Sachs has brought in sleep experts. Johnson and Johnson offers employees a digital health coaching program for battling insomnia that involves an online sleep diary and relaxation videos for mobile devices. Google hosts ‘sleeposium’ events.”
Still, businesses continue to operate on the basis of statistics and facts, not feelings. So until Harvard released a study last year on the relationship between sleep deprivation and work productivity, smaller businesses and companies that lacked healthy budgets weren’t doing much to address the problem.
The Harvard research study found that, for the average worker, insomnia leads to the loss of 11.3 days’ worth of productivity each calendar year. That’s the equivalent of $2,280.
