{"id":7437,"date":"2012-10-02T09:20:18","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T23:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/knowledgetoday\/?p=7437"},"modified":"2012-10-02T09:20:18","modified_gmt":"2012-10-01T23:20:18","slug":"sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/blog\/2012\/10\/sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"The eye-opening impact of a lack of sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the\u00a0Knowledge@Wharton today\u00a0blog<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you experienced the blues after the long weekend today, you may be among the millions who don\u2019t get enough sleep and cause workplace productivity losses of up to 30%, according to recent research.<\/p>\n

Sleep deficits seem to be a serious problem. Almost a third of all working adults get six or fewer hours of sleep each night, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to most sources, adults usually require between seven and nine hours of sleep a night to function optimally. Chronic sleep loss and sleep disorders are estimated to cost the nation as much as $16 billion in health care expenses and $50 billion in lost productivity, medical journal NIH Medline Plus<\/a> says, citing studies from the National Centre on Sleep Disorders Research.<\/p>\n

Wharton practice professor of management Stewart Friedman<\/a> says the expectation in most workplaces is that employees should be fully alert during the entire span of their working day. Employers, of course, have formal \u201cbreaks\u201d built into work schedules. \u201cBut often the span of expected work without rest is longer than employees can [manage to do while maintaining] 100% effort and focus,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

More creative ways must be found to tackle sleep deficits hurting workplace productivity, because individuals vary in their need for rest, Friedman argues. \u201cWe would go a long way to increasing productivity if we made it legitimate and easy for people to take short periods of rest when they need to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s highly connected world, sleep is a casualty also of text messages and emails that arrive at times when employees should be either relaxing or settling into bed for the night. \u201cPeople feel this constant need to be connected,\u201d noted Wharton management professor Nancy Rothbard<\/a> in a recent Knowledge@Wharton article<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s no priority structure. Everything is urgent. Everything is red flagged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Studies show that inadequate sleep leads to deficits in cognitive performance, including the ability to think clearly and quickly, perform efficiently, remember things and drive safely, according to David Dinges<\/a>, associate director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, which has conducted studies on the subject for several federal agencies. Sleep deficits are also linked to higher rates of obesity, less effective emotional regulation, diabetes, heart disease and other issues, he adds.<\/p>\n

Why do people lose sleep? The U.S. Department of Labor\u2019s American Time Use Survey, which measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, including paid work, childcare, volunteering and socialising, shows that people tend to give up sleep time for paid work, but not for unpaid work like household duties. Because they are compensated for their hours spent on the job, \u201cpeople will get up earlier, go to work earlier and work longer for greater compensation \u2014 and in doing that they will lose sleep,\u201d says Dinges.<\/p>\n

Long commuting times only add to the problem by extending the work day further. Jet lag is also difficult to overcome for business travelers. \u201cThe disruption of the circadian system and the effect [jet lag] has on inadequate sleep often leaves them at a significant disadvantage relative to their local host,\u201d says Dinges. Caffeine and other stimulants have limits on their effectiveness, he adds.<\/p>\n

Recovering from a sleep deficit accumulated over five nights requires more than one weekend night of sleeping longer, notes Dinges, who is currently researching such \u201ccatch-up sleep.\u201d Moreover, he finds that many people report that they cannot sleep two consecutive nights consisting of nine-hour stretches because their biological clock wakes them up \u2014 not to mention noise, light and other disturbances. (And those with small children will agree that there\u2019s usually no hope of sleeping past 7 a.m. on the weekend.)<\/p>\n

Epidemiological studies show that \u201cvery, very few people\u201d can manage with four or five hours of sleep, although many claim that they can, says Dinges. People who consider themselves \u201ccommitted\u201d to their work like to brag that they don\u2019t need eight hours of sleep, because sleep is associated with laziness in some people\u2019s minds, he adds. Those who seem to thrive at their jobs despite sleep deficits often have more flexibility with regard to getting their work done, he points out. \u201cPeople get by even with deteriorated performance from inadequate sleep by simply not being under [as much] pressure [as others].\u201d<\/p>\n

And while it may seem that well-compensated CEOs and other high-level executives get away with less sleep, Dinges points out that they often catch-up in limousines and in airplanes, and by consuming a lot of caffeine and other stimulants. Also, he finds that these individuals engage in \u201cwake-promoting\u201d activities, like standing at their desk or holding conversations. \u201cAt meetings, they are not the ones who have to sit and listen; they get to stand and talk,\u201d he says. \u201cIf they had to sit and listen, they would find out they haven\u2019t had adequate sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

This post\u00a0was previously posted in Knowledge@Wharton today blog: The Eye-opening Impact of Sleep Deficits<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the\u00a0Knowledge@Wharton today\u00a0blog. If you experienced the blues after the long weekend today, you may be among the millions who don\u2019t get enough sleep and cause workplace productivity losses of up to 30%, according to recent research. Sleep deficits seem to be a serious problem. Almost a third of all working adults get six or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":336,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12668],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-knowledge-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/336"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7437"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7439,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7437\/revisions\/7439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}