Sleep, work and productivity – the benefits of a good night’s rest

How much sleep do you get? What impact is sleep having on productivity in your business?

In the UK, we’re operating in sleep debt – the average person gets less than the 7 – 9 hours they need to be at their best. Personally I struggle to get more than 6!

Getting enough sleep is a big part of health and wellbeing – and something I’ve been trying to integrate into my personal and professional life for some time.

In this post, I take a look at the impact of poor sleep on the body and mind, and explore what business owners can do to promote healthy sleep inside their organisations.

The impact of sleep deprivation

Sleep deprivation has a huge impact on us – mentally, physically and emotionally. Just ask any new parent how they feel after a week of sleepless nights. There’s a reason sleep deprivation is used as torture!

The reality is that lack of sleep affects our ability to function on multiple levels:

Physical

Energy levels

The obvious impact lack of sleep has is on energy levels – which has a measurable impact on your ability to react. The impact is significant, and similar in nature to when you’ve been drinking alcohol.

Health

Lack of sleep can also have a measurable impact on general health, in terms of:

• Body temperature
• Blood pressure
• Heart rate
• Breathing rate

Long term, chronic sleep deprivation is linked to a number of serious health issues, including:

• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Heart Disease 
• Increased risk of strokes

Immune system

Lack of sleep has an impact on your immune system. According to a 2009 study, for instance, it can make you nearly 3 times as susceptible to the common cold. For businesses, this means an increase in sick days, and the associated costs.

Recovery

Deep sleep is the stage of sleep where our body restores the muscles. Miss out on this, and your muscles will ache more, and you’ll take longer to recover. Athletes have known this for decades – in 1981, a study by BJ Martin concluded that lack of sleep makes you tire 11% faster when exercising.

Mental and emotional

Memory

The REM period of sleep is the time when we consolidate our memories. It’s the time when the brain organises, stores and retains the things we’ve learned in the day. Miss out on this, and your working memory will be impaired.

Focus

Lack of sleep has a big impact on our ability to be attentive – when you’re tired, it’s much harder to focus on specific tasks or information when other things are going on. This has obvious downsides when it comes to workplace productivity.

Wellbeing

Sleep problems increase the risk of a number of mental health problems, including stress and depression. Different studies estimate that 65% - 90% of people with depression also experience some kind of sleep problem.

The two feed each other. Lack of sleep impacts on the brain chemistry itself, flooding it with the stress hormone cortisol, and messing with serotonin production, which makes individuals more susceptible.

Sleep management in the workplace – 3 practical solutions

So what can you do to improve your team’s sleeping habits?

Honestly, I’m not sure how practical introducing sleep management programmes in the workplace is. Ultimately, anything prescriptive oversteps the mark – it’s not as if you can tell your employees when to go to bed!

However, there are a few things you might want to consider:

1.      Build a better work life balance

Sometimes, work is a big part of the problem. If your employees are working late all the time, taking work home, or accessing work emails at all hours of the day and night – then it might be time to take active steps to limit this.

Shutting down access to work systems, stopping team members from taking work home, and limiting overtime can help to free up evenings – promoting a healthier work life balance.

The natural progression of this is to offer flexible working schedules – allowing team members some flexibility in terms of the hours they work.

2.      Raise awareness

Most people understand that sleep is important, but they may not know just how important it is. Educating your team about the risks of sleep deprivation, and the benefits to physical and mental wellbeing is really important.

You could encourage team members to monitor their sleep using a smart sleep tracker – or purchase some to lend out from the office. This can help team members to self-identify their own poor sleeping habits.

3.      Get physical

People who get more physical exercise tend to sleep better. Work exercise programmes and classes, cycle to work schemes and corporate gym memberships can all help to boost the amount of exercise your team gets.

You could even start introducing walking meetings for internal work – it’s an easy, effective way to combine productive work with exercise.

It’s a virtuous circle – people who sleep better are also more likely to make positive choices when it comes to health and wellbeing.