How long did you sleep last night?  If you’re like 83% of U.S. workers, not enough.  While the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that adults get 7-8 hours of sleep each night, only 17% say they actually get that full amount according to a recent Career Builder survey.  60% feel that the lack of sleep negatively affects their work.

The Career Builder survey asked those 60% of workers who don’t get enough sleep how it impacts their work lives:

·       It makes the day go by slower: 29%

·       It makes me less motivated: 27%

·       It makes me less productive: 25%

·       It affects my memory: 19%

·       It takes me longer to complete tasks: 13%

·       It causes me to make mistakes: 12%

·       It makes me resent my job: 8%

Another study performed by Harvard reports that sleep deprivation could be costing the U.S. economy $63 billion due to lost productivity.  Today’s busy professionals experience many pressures that affect their ability to maintain ample sleep.  Things such as flexible shifts, international travel, working across time zones, artificial lighting, longer work days, and the use of hand-held technology at night all affect sleep.

Lack of sleep can deeply affect organizational performance.  In a study entitled “The Wake-Up Call” performed by Hult Research they identified five ways in which senior leadership specifically is affected by the lack of sleep:

1.       Find it harder to work with challenging colleagues

2.       Less able to stay focused in meetings

3.       Less able to remain focused on daily objectives

4.       Become frustrated more easily when a project doesn’t go to plan

5.       Lose focus easily

The Hult study shows that 44% of senior leaders struggle with analyzing data from a variety of sources, and 43% claim they are less able to hold strategic conversations when lacking sleep.

So what role does HR and management play in this?  Some suggestions from Hult Research for ways to encourage employees to maintain healthy sleep patterns include:

·       Put sleep on the agenda, talk about it at all levels within the organization, and share the many ways that sleep loss can affect people.

·       Develop a travel policy for your employees, and ensure it includes provisions for sleep and recovery days for both national and international travel.

·       Recommend breaks before major meetings where key strategic decisions are being made.

·       Encourage and support good work-life balance and healthy lifestyles in employees.

·       When employees present with physical, social, emotional or work issues, be mindful of potential symptoms of sleep loss.

·       Create flexible ways of working that enable employees to operate at their peak.

A sleep deprived workforce can not only cause health and safety issues, but can also affect workplace relationships.  84% surveyed felt more irritable as a result of less sleep, and more than half reported higher levels of stress, anxiety, and feelings of frustration.

Research has proved that employee performance and productivity are reduced with inadequate sleep.  Educate your employees on this topic, and encourage healthy sleeping habits.  Most importantly, be aware of the issue so that you can easily identify sleep issues where they exist.

Sources: Hult.edu, hrdailyadvisor.blr.com, huffingtonpost.com