The sleep-productivity paradox: Why late nights won’t help your company get more done.

Sometimes when an employee’s to-do list grows longer by the second, working late to get more done seems like a no-brainer. In fact, some company cultures may even encourage this behavior by treating working into the night as the ultimate bragging right. Here’s why it’s time to put that mindset to bed.

Insufficient sleep is counterproductive on many levels. Sleep impacts our ability to be present, make sound decisions, and build relationships. Which means that if your employees aren’t sleeping well, your company is well on its way to losing top talent.

Sleep is the secret ingredient to productivity

Sleep impacts nearly every part of our mental and physical health. When individuals get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep per night, they are more likely to fight off infections, less likely to suffer from chronic conditions, and better at learning and memory skills.

Quality sleep is critical to rejuvenating neurons — the brain’s information messengers — which enable employees to show up to work ready to use critical thinking skills and decisive judgment. This helps them be better equipped to plan and execute critical projects.

But when running on little sleep, employees’ are less likely to understand new information or use sound judgment. Their situational awareness even decreases, leading to an increased safety risk. Fatigued employees are 70% more likely to be involved in workplace accidents than their well-rested coworkers.

Poor sleep isn’t just grogginess. Overtime, sleep deprivation negatively impacts parts of our cognitive ability, creating long-standing memory and concentration issues.

Poor sleep is costing your company more than an extra cup of coffee

You can’t put a dollar amount on how great a restful night of sleep feels. But you can estimate how much insufficient sleep costs your company. Fatigue-related costs, such as loss in productivity, motivation, and healthcare, amount to approximately $1,967 per employee per year.

In total, experts estimate that insufficient sleep costs the U.S. economy over $411 billion annually, which equates to losing approximately 1.23 million working days per year.

For some of your employees, showing up tired isn’t something they can control. They may be one of the 50–70 million people in the U.S. who suffer from a sleep disorder. Common sleep disorders, like obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and insomnia, keep people from being able to get the rest they need — and a significant portion go untreated due to a lack of awareness or access to care.

When left untreated, sleep disorders wreak havoc on other costly health conditions. OSA, for example, worsens health conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, obesity, hypertension, and depression.

Exacerbated chronic conditions pose an extreme health risk to your employees and result in additional productivity and financial losses for your company. In fact, the National Safety Council estimates that employers pay approximately $3,000 in additional healthcare costs for each employee with untreated OSA.

Want your employees to be more present? Check how they’re sleeping.

Sleep is the foundation to good health — for your employees and your company. Building that foundation may be as simple as encouraging a healthy work-life balance to reprioritize rest. While supporting your employees suffering from sleep disorders may seem more complicated, it doesn’t have to be with the right resources and partners.

Fixing your employees’ sleep and giving them access to streamlined, clinical sleep health care is the key to making your workplace a more engaging, productive, and safe environment.

Employer-driven OSA screening programs alone have proven to reduce workplace accidents by up to 73%, save $500–700 per employee per month in healthcare costs, and can increase employee retention.

If you’re interested in giving your employees the sleep they need to lead full and present lives, find out what resources are available for your company with Primasun today: https://www.primasun.com/who-we-serve/employers/