Sleep Is Essential For A Productive Workplace

What do the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker grounding and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger all have in common (besides being major catastrophes that cost millions and took lives)?  Individuals who played a critical role in what went wrong were sleep deprived at the time of each accident.  There is also a link between lack of sleep and medical errors in hospitals. The Institute of Medicine reports that over a million injuries and 50,000 to 100,000 deaths occur each year from preventable medical errors, many of which are believed to be attributed to insufficient sleep.  Likewise, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 100,000 police-reported crashes in the U.S. annually are the direct result of driver fatigue.  Also, the National Transportation Safety Board estimates that 70% of commercial aviation fatal accidents are related to human error and that operating crew fatigue is responsible for 15-20% of the overall accident rate.

While employee fatigue may not seem like a major concern for the average business, employees who do not get enough sleep — whether for just one night or over the course of weeks to months or on a regular basis — can significantly worsen productivity, work quality, customer service, and safety.  Employee sleep deprivation can negatively impact mood, ability to focus, and ability to access higher-level cognitive functions.  Sleep-deprived employees are less productive, creative, efficient, effective and engaging.

While sleep is as essential to all living creatures’ well-being as food, water and oxygen, many people do not get enough sleep on a regular basis.  Just as people cannot function for long without sufficient nutrition, hydration or air, the ability to function also diminishes without sleep.  Unfortunately, the hectic pace of daily life competes with the need for enough sleep.  And there is uncertainty about how much sleep is ‘enough.’ Although we hear a lot of hype about needing and getting more sleep, there is no consensus on just how many hours of sleep the average person needs and it’s even harder to tell if one is adequately rested.  Is there a set amount of hours needed by all?  What happens if a person doesn’t get enough sleep?  How much does lack of sleep affect a person’s productivity and mental ability to function?  And is there such a thing as “oversleeping” the same way that a person can overeat?

How Does Lack of Sleep Impact Work Performance?

First, let’s consider just how much sleep deprivation can impact a person’s performance at work.  Not getting enough sleep results in human fatigue and lack of motivation.  After a period of sleep deprivation, there is a noticeable change in brain activity, which corresponds to a lower level of alertness.  Performance measures are noticeably altered. The region of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which is responsible for many higher-level cognitive functions, is particularly vulnerable to a lack of sleep. As a result, people who are sleep deprived begin to show deficits in many tasks that require logical reasoning or complex thought.  Concentration, working memory, mathematical capacity, and logical reasoning are all cognitive functions compromised by sleep deprivation. Any period of continual wakefulness beyond the typical 16 hours or so generally leads to measurable changes.

Determining exactly how much performance is affected by sleep loss is difficult, in part, because of factors such as individual differences in sleep needs, individual differences in sensitivity to sleep deprivation, and individual differences in motivation to stay alert despite sleep loss. Notwithstanding, it is clear that lack of sleep affects performance.

Even Animals Need Sleep.

All living creatures need to sleep, but sleep schedules vary greatly from animal to animal.  Some scientists believe the differences are based on the brain metabolic rate of the animal. Smaller animals with higher rates of brain metabolism need more sleep.  Larger animals with slower rates of brain metabolism generally sleep less.  For example, giraffes can go weeks without sleep.  Indeed, most large land mammals, such as elephants and cows, all sleep less than four hours on average.  Land-grazing animals also spend so much time eating, there isn’t much time left for sleep.  Horses stand 98% of the time, making it difficult to sleep.  At the other end of the spectrum, brown bats sleep for nearly the entire day.   Other scientists believe animals’ sleep schedules are based on the danger each animal faces. For example, some birds literally sleep with one eye open which they use to track potential predators.  But the prize for most unique sleep habits goes to marine mammals.  When marine mammals sleep, there is always one hemisphere of their brain that is awake. For example, dolphins can swim and surface to breathe while sleeping. They can perform many of the same processes while sleeping that they do awake.

Interestingly, rats have similar sleep needs as people.  Rats need sleep to be alert and learn new tasks.   In fact, all mammals (human and non-human) need sleep and have the same basic sleep cycle.  Both humans and animals have rapid eye movement (REM) during sleep.  This is the state of sleep associated with dreams. Both humans and all other mammals display the same level of brain activity and increased heart rate variability during REM sleep.  REM sleep is when the brain gets recharged and refreshed.

So Just How Much Sleep Do We Need?

Although every living creature needs sleep, sleep experts agree that there is no “exact amount” of sleep needed by all people.  Sleep needs vary by age group and individual.  The amount of sleep one person needs to function best is probably different from that of someone else of the same age and gender.

There are two factors that affect each person’s individual sleep needs.  The first is the person’s Basal Sleep Need which is the amount of sleep our bodies need on a regular basis for optimal performance.  The second is a person’s Sleep Debt which is the accumulated lack of sleep lost to poor sleep habits, illness, and other factors that interfere with sleep.

It appears that healthy adults (ages 20-65) have a basal sleep need of seven to eight hours per night.  But determining sleep need doesn’t stop there.  One must factor the interaction between basal need and sleep debt. Even if a person got the basal sleep needed a few nights in a row, if there was a sleep debt that had accumulated from before, that deficit would cause the person to feel sleepy and less alert, particularly during circadian dips…  times in the 24-hour cycle when the body is physiologically programmed to be sleepier and less alert (when there is no daylight).  At those times, the person could become suddenly, overwhelmingly sleepy.  Thankfully, accumulated sleep debt can be paid off, just like financial debt.

One thing is certain.  For employees to be their most productive, creative, and logical (as well as friendly), they need to get a full night’s rest on a regular basis.  Sleep deprived employees are bad for business.  While employers can’t force employees to get enough sleep, competitive businesses can ill afford to have lots of sleep-deprived staff on the job, especially during busy times.  CPAs during tax season, mortgage lenders handling closings at month-end, and retailers during the holidays should all take note.  Staff will be more productive, effective and efficient if they get enough sleep regularly.  Expecting employees to work excessive hours (which ultimately cuts into sleep time) actually undercuts their overall performance.  Ensuring that staff schedules don’t interfere with their time to rest isn’t just the right thing to do for the staff’s well being, it also just good business.

Stay tuned.  Next week, we’ll look at how lack of sleep not only impacts employees work performance, but also their health.

Quote of the Week

“That we are not much sicker and much madder than we are is due exclusively to that most blessed and blessing of all natural graces, sleep.” Aldous Huxley

© 2012, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.