Sleep is as important to our health as eating, drinking, and breathing. It allows our bodies to repair themselves and our brains to consolidate our memories and process information.
Poor sleep is linked to physical problems such as a weakened immune system and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Sleep Matters provides sound, evidence-based advice on how to improve the quality of your sleep. This includes simple ways to improve your sleep hygiene such as adjusting the light, noise and temperature in the bedroom and changing your eating, drinking and exercise routines.
Benefits of Quality Sleep on Health & Wellbeing From assessing the negative impacts that poor sleep can have on employee health and wellbeing, it’s easy to see the benefits that a good night’s sleep can have for your people:
Improved mental wellbeing: with mental health in the workplace a concern for many employers, there is a drive to find methods to alleviate the problem. Surveys have found that several people suffering with anxiety and depression slept for less than six hours a night – getting the right number of hours sleep leads to improved mental wellbeing.
Health condition prevention: as we’ve seen, lack of sleep can cause several serious health problems including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and diabetes. Improved sleep per day can also lead to greater immunity from common illnesses such as cold and flu, thanks to less disruption for the immune system.
Greater productivity: with 200,000 working days lost per year due to lack of sleep, being well rested will lead to employees feeling more alert, motivated and productive – improving business output.
How Much Sleep Should We Be Getting? There is no definitive answer to this question, with sleep requirements varying from person to person. However, we commonly us need around 8 hours of good-quality sleep a night to function properly.
If you’re finding your employees are frequently tired, and suffering from symptoms associated with poor-quality sleep, it’s likely that they need to increase the number of hours spent per night sleeping.
The Impact of Poor Sleep on Health & Wellbeing
As well as affecting overall employee productivity, lack of sleep can have several serious impacts for employee health and wellbeing, which could lead to further problems. For example, studies have found sleep loss and poor-quality sleep lead to accidents and injuries on the job, which could have otherwise been avoided.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School surveyed more than 10,000 people in the U.S. and found that that lack of sleep was responsible for 274,000 workplace accidents and errors each year. This is further supported by data from the UK, where the risk of injury in the workplace increases by as much as 25%-30% for those working night shifts. Poor quality sleep can also lead to several serious health problems for employees, with lack of sleep increasing the risk of conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and diabetes. Adults who sleep fewer than six hours a day have a 13% higher mortality rate than adults who sleep at least seven hours.
Other Negative Impacts Caused By Lack Of Sleep Include:
Poor mental health – sleep, and lack thereof, contribute greatly to overall mental health, with symptoms of anxiety and depression greater in those who sleep less than six hours a night.
Forgetfulness – poor-quality sleep can impact adult’s ability to process and store long-term memories, leading to increased forgetfulness.
Weight gain – lack of sleep can lead to increased hunger and appetite, stimulating weight gain amongst adults. This can lead to increased chance of health issues.
Sources:
Mental Health
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