{"id":12778,"date":"2019-11-18T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/companies-cant-afford-to-ignore-employee-sleep\/"},"modified":"2022-11-04T05:55:19","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T09:55:19","slug":"companies-cant-afford-to-ignore-employee-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/companies-cant-afford-to-ignore-employee-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Companies Can\u2019t Afford To Ignore Employee Sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"

As companies look at ways to encourage employees toward holistic well-being, it\u2019s easy to focus on things like physical activity through gym memberships and fitness challenges. Even companies that incorporate creative wellness strategies like company gardens and financial education may not realize the importance of one foundational health issue: sleep.<\/p>\n

Sleep insufficiency has become a public health concern, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>. Between 1942 and 2013, the average hours of sleep<\/a> per night fell from 7.9 to just 6.8. Today, one-third of U.S. adults report that they usually get less than the recommended amount of sleep every night.<\/p>\n

Poor sleep is linked to a host of health issues, including diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and depression. One study<\/a> tracked the lifestyles of 60,000 women for sixteen years. None of the women were obese at the beginning of the study. At the end of the study, those women who reported sleeping five hours or less per night had a 15% higher risk of becoming obese than women who slept seven or more hours per night.<\/p>\n

Employers should also be concerned about the safety issues and economic losses<\/a> connected to poor sleep. In addition to \u201cdrowsy driving,\u201d which causes approximately 20% of all serious car accident injuries, many workplace accidents can also be attributed to employee sleepiness on the job. Several major workplace catastrophes have been linked to sleep-deprived workers, including the Bophal, India, chemical plant tragedy, the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island nuclear reactor meltdowns, and the grounding of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker.<\/p>\n

A 2016 Rand Corporation study<\/a> estimated annual U. S. economic losses due to insufficient sleep at $411 billion. In addition, U.S. employers lose about 1.23 million workdays to insufficient sleep.<\/p>\n

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Good Sleep, Better Health<\/h2>\n

The effects of insufficient sleep are well-documented, but what about the effects of good sleep? How do companies benefit when employees get good sleep?<\/p>\n