Sleep Deprivation and the Workplace

Sleep Deprivation and the Workplace

Americans may be the richest people in the world. But there is one thing they can’t seem to buy enough of: sleep.

U.S.adults report getting an average of 6.9 hours of sleep a night, according to a 2005 National Sleep Foundation survey.This is just below the generally recommended range of 7 to 9 hours. But if they’re getting close to the amount of sleep they need, they don’t seem to be getting the most out of it. In the same survey:

about 75 percent said they had a symptom of some sleep problem a few nights a week or more in the prior year
50 percent reported feeling tired, fatigued or not up to par during their waking hours at least 1 day a week
17 percent said they felt this way almost every day

Some 50 million to 70 million Americans “struggle with chronic sleep disorders,” according to a 2006 Institute of Medicine report.Fatigue costs businesses an estimated $150 billion a year in lost productivity and accidents. Auto and truck accidents involving tired drivers cost at least $48 billion a year. Other studies suggest that the nation’s decline in downtimeis contributing to other widespread health problems, such as obesity. (Experts estimate that Americans sleep 1 to 2 hours less each night than they did a half-century ago.)

What do these numbers mean for your workplace?

Sleep deprivation is common. Any business can be affected by it.
The costs of not getting enough shut-eye are real and serious, with an impact on health as well as productivity. Fatigue may not get the same attention as other health and behavior problems, such as substance abuse or depression, but it should not be ignored.
Managers need to watch for signs of the problem andlearn how to deal with it. Because it’s not likely to go away on its own.

Spotting the sleepless

How do you know when someone else is sleep-deprived? You don’t have to wait for an employee to fall asleep at the desk. You can pick up clues before that point, and some are measurable.

You can count mistakes, for instance. Sleep deprivation leads to higher error rates, “especially with numbers or machinery,” says James O’Connor, MD, medical director of the sleep laboratory at ShoreMemorialHospital in Somers Point, N.J.It also leads to more accidents—which is one reason managers cannot ignore it.

O’Connor also advises watching for changes in mood and behavior. The sleep-deprived tend to get irritable, he says. This can be especially obvious (and harmful to the business) among employees who deal directly with customers. Also, he suggests keeping an eye out for people who seem highly dependent on caffeine, loading up on coffee or caffeine-fortified soft drinks.

Managers also can watch for some telltale patterns. For instance, O’Connor says people who are chronically sleep-deprived in the work week will try to catch up on the weekend. So they come in refreshed and ready to roll on Monday morning. However, he says, they get “more tired and dragging and less efficient in the afternoon as the week goes on.” There’s also a characteristic daily pattern in sleep deprivation. A tired worker will start the day fresh but slow down markedly in the afternoon, when the brain tends to induce sleepiness even in the well-rested. Well-rested people can work during this phase with little loss of alertness and efficiency, but even they can get a little drowsy. For the sleep-deprived, simply staying awake can be a struggle.

Another approach is to raise employee awareness of sleep deprivation—its signs and effects. Understanding that living on five or six hours of sleep each weeknight is bad for their health as well as their work performance, may be all the incentive people need to start changing their habits or seeking medical help. Jack Bastable, a consultant on health and productivity management with the business-services firm CBIZ, suggests paying employees to take a sleep and health course.

How to help

Managers cannot enforce a bedtime. But they do have the ability to educate and advise. And they have the duty to make sure a sleepy worker is doing his share of the work and is not endangering himself or others.

For employees who clearly have a sleep problem, Bastable and O’Connor suggest that they keep a sleep log for two weeks. They should write down when they go to bed and when they get up. This will show whether the problem is one of quantity (too little time sleeping) or quality (the employee gets plenty of sleep but doesn’t wake up refreshed). In the first case, the remedy may simply be to allot more time to sleep. Or to take some simple steps such as avoiding caffeine in the evening and budgeting plenty of wind-down time. Exercise also helps to produce a good night’s sleep if timed right. The National Sleep Council recommends working out two to three hours before bedtime. The solution to poor quality sleep may require medical diagnosis and treatment of disorders—such as sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome—that disturb slumber or makeit hard to fall asleep in the first place.

Beyond helping individual sleep-deprived employees, managers can help ensure a well-rested workforce by scheduling to avoid overly long shifts.Special care needs to be taken in the case of “shift workers,” whose hours don’t fit the “9-to-5” mold. They face special challenges in getting enough sleep during the day when the rest of the world (including their families) is wide awake and active. These workers may have no trouble adjusting to a night shift when they’re in their 20s, but this can get more difficult as they age. Managers need to be sensitive to such changes.

Managers also need to avoid encouraging overwork or rewarding long hours for their own sake. The employee who’s the last to leave every night shouldn’t be held up as a model, especially if he’s working late not to out-produce everyone else but simply to catch up. Employers need to remember, as O’Connor says, that “we don’t just run home and go to bed” after work. A balanced life with adequate rest requires a good stretch of time between work and sleep for winding down.

Of all the threats to health, safety and productivity that face managers, sleep deprivation may be the most subtle and hardest to detect. That’s all the more reason to look for signs of it before it leads to serious harm to an organization or the people in it. As Bastable points out, “What a person does from 5 to 9 influences what they do from 9 to 5.”

Resources

The National Sleep Foundation

For expert advice on all sleep-related topics, along with help in finding sleep centers nationwide

Sources:Jack Bastable, national practice leader, health and productivity management, CBIZ; James O’Connor, MD, medical director, Sleep Center, Shore Memorial Hospital; National Sleep Foundation; Institute of Medicine; “Sleep Deficit, The Performance Killer: A Conversation With Harvard Medical School Professor Charles A. Czeisler,” Harvard Business Review, October 2006; “Getting Sufficient Sleep May Help Reduce Weight Gain,” Medscape Medical News, Dec. 7, 2004.

By Tom Gray