Many companies already operate excellent employee health and wellbeing programmes and understand the business benefits of doing so.
Unsurprisingly, the topic most commonly covered in recent times has been stress. Given that stress has surpassed chronic illness as the greatest cause of long term absence it is understandable why this has been the case.
Muscular skeletal issues are also commonly covered – both through active programmes, in roles where workers are more prone to injury but also through facilities departments and ergonomists in office environments where quality seating and the correct desk set up are also important.
Amongst other common initiatives covered in corporate wellbeing programmes physical activity and nutrition tend to feature regularly. We’ve seen an increasing focus on societal education with programmes like Change4Life so it has made sense to “piggy back” on these initiatives.
So great, we get that – but why should we incorporate sleep into our wellbeing programme?
We believe that the one facet of employee health and wellbeing that is most frequently overlooked, to the detriment of health, productivity and safety is sleep. Sleep together with physical activity and nutrition form the 3 Pillars of good health.
Think for a moment… When you are tired how much more likely are you to “postpone” that trip to the gym or the jog around the common? Are you going to have the energy at the end of a draining day to cook a healthy and nutritious meal or is it more likely you’ll stop by the shops to pick up a ready-meal. I’ve been there and I know the answer to both those questions. I am sure you do too.
Research has also shown that even after one poor night of sleep we will consume an extra 500 calories the next day. These foods also tend to be high in sugar and carbohydrate to give us a “lift”. The 3pm chocolate bar or fizzy drink? We’ve all reached for one.
Across the developed world tiredness as a result of sleep deprivation is becoming so common that the Centres for Disease Control has identified it as the next “public health epidemic.”
Poor sleep has been linked to significant increases in the rates of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes and cancer as well as minor ill-health. These result in direct medical costs as well as significant indirect costs associated with absenteeism and presenteeism.
A study conducted by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and the Integrated Benefits Institute in 2008 looked at 15,000 employees’ health-related productivity costs, The single greatest cost to organisations was fatigue with sleeping problems the 4th greatest productivity cost. This suggests that from a return on investment perspective there is considerable merit in tackling sleep.
When we suffer from poor sleep we suffer numerous physical and cognitive impairments which can lead to poor performance and human error. Sleep deprivation affects blood flow to three areas of the brain which play a crucial role in: decision making, attention span and the speed at which we adopt new information.
Our fast-paced lifestyle creates a situation that produces poor sleep habits and may mask and exacerbate more critical and life-threatening health problems. All of these lead to decreased productivity, higher safety risks, and increased costs resulting from health-related absences.
Ultimately tiredness and fatigue is unproductive, costly, unhealthy and unsafe.
I hope I have provided a little food for thought on why you should incorporate sleep into your wellness programme in 2016. To find out more:
We are running a webinar entitled “The importance of sleep to wellbeing” on the 15th December. If you would like to join this webinar please register here.
Alternatively if you would prefer to understand how you can engage and educate staff on the topic of sleep in a cost-effective manner then please click here.
