Sleep on This: Well-Rested Employees Make for a Safer Workplace

By Paul Giannetti

A good night’s sleep is critical to being alert, focused, and productive during the day. Yet too many Americans, however, just don’t get enough sleep. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 30 percent of Americans sleep less than six hours a night – falling far short of the seven to nine hours that most sleep experts recommend.

Why aren’t we sleeping enough? There are a few reasons. The CDC says it's because 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from insomnia or other sleep disorders. For some people, skimping on sleep is voluntary -- by choosing to stay up late to watch TV or hang out with friends. And for others, it’s because their jobs require them to work long or unusual hours and forgo sleep.

Danger in the workplace

American corporate culture tends to laud those who sacrifice sleep for work. Employers and managers often encourage – if not outright push – employees to cut corners on sleep in the name of productivity. But that’s a dangerous mistake.

When people are fatigued or sleep deprived, they simply don’t function as well. Sleep researchers have thoroughly documented through empirical study that lack of sleep creates impaired judgement, slower reaction times, greater errors, and an increased difficulty solving problems. Worse, it’s been shown that people often don’t recognize the extent to which their abilities are impaired when they are sleepy, and they continue making important decisions and handling certain tasks as if they are operating in a full state of alertness. This misperception can be hazardous.

Numerous studies have shown that fatigued or sleep-deprived employees heighten the risk of workplace accidents and decrease productivity. A Harvard Medical School study showed that insomnia may be responsible for as many as 274,000 occupational accidents and errors in the U.S. each year, costing companies $31 billion in extra expenses. Similar studies have correlated sleepiness to an increased risk of workplace injuries throughout the world, from Canada to Finland to Japan.

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Fatigue and sleepiness have also been linked to several of the world’s largest environmental disasters. The Three Mile Island and Chernobyl catastrophes took place in the wee hours of the morning, and the tiredness of the employees is believed to have been a significant factor.  Sleep deprivation is also said to have played a role in the Exxon-Valdez oil spill and the Challenger space shuttle disaster.

Beyond these high-profile cases, fatigue is prevalent in the American workplace. A poll by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) showed that 29 percent of respondents reported falling asleep or becoming very sleepy at work, while 36 percent reported falling asleep or nodding off while driving. Another NSF poll alarmingly reported that 20 percent of airline pilots, 18 percent of train operators, and 14 percent of truck drivers say that their sleepiness has caused them to make serious errors while on the job.

Promoting better sleep habits

Most companies don't have specific policies that encourage employees to get sufficient sleep or rest -- and they should. All the safety trainings and policies in the world will not reduce a company’s workplace accident rates if the employees are sleep deprived. And tired employees can cause a company’s productivity to take a serious hit too.

If you’re serious about reducing workplace accidents and increasing productivity at your business, try ensuring that your employees are well rested. Here are four ways to encourage your employees to get more sleep:

1. Encourage employees to take regular breaks or naps. As the national sleep problem and its effect on workplace accidents and productivity gains more attention, many companies are encouraging employees to nap at work, and are even providing break rooms and sofas for employees to take short rests during the day. Research shows that a short nap of 20 to 30 minutes can boost alertness, mood, and performance at work. Actively encourage your employees to “power nap” during breaks or when they feel overwhelmed with fatigue, and even organize a schedule where colleagues can cover for others during nap breaks.

2. Ensure that employes have a reasonable work schedule. Sleep expert Dr. Charles Czeisler, says that one way to ensure employees are getting ample rest is to create rotating employee shifts that limit workdays to no longer than 12 hours per day. He also recommends that employees have at least one day --  ideally, two consecutive days --  off per week to avoid building up a sleep deficit.

3. Provide training on sleep and sleep hygiene. Too many of us undervalue sleep and fail to truly understand the negative effects of being sleep deprived. Consider establishing regular, mandatory training programs to educate employees on the importance of a good night’s rest, how to sleep well regularly, and actions to take for sleep disorders. Employees should establish the habit of vigilantly guarding a sufficient amount of time for sleep, removing distractions such as smartphones, tablets, and computers from the bedroom and keeping the bedroom as dark and noiseproof as possible. Czeisler recommends that companies screen employees for sleep disorders at least once a year.

4. Demonstrate that the company values well-rested employees. It’s useless to create sleep-friendly policies if you're not showing your employees that attaining good sleep is truly encouraged. Resist the temptation to glorify employees who work around the clock, and instead find opportunities to enforce the idea that the work of well-rested employees is highly valued. The stigma of needing sleep to function efficiently must be overcome. It’s not a moral failing: it’s a biological reality.