In a new finding, researchers estimate that 23 percent of the U.S. workforce suffers from temporary lack of sleep. The annual cost to employers is $63.2 billion and 257.2 days in lost productivity annually. The finding suggests it may be worthwhile for employers to invest on interventions to help employees get better sleep.
Researchers say they were “shocked” to find the “enormous impact” of temporary lack of sleep in the workplace that is largely ignored by employers because it’s not considered an illness and typically doesn’t lead to time away from work.
Cost of temporary lack of sleep underappreciated by employers. In the study, “temporary lack of sleep and the performance of US workers: Results from the America temporary lack of sleep Survey”, researchers found working women suffer higher rates of temporary lack of sleep than do men.
“Now that we know how much temporary lack of sleep costs the American workplace, the question for employers is whether the price of intervention is worthwhile,” said Kessler, a psychiatric epidemiologist with the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. “Can U.S. employers afford not to address temporary lack of sleep in workplace?”