TOP TIPS FOR PROMOTING HEALTHY SLEEPING HABITS AT WORK
Promoting healthy employee sleeping habits for better workplace productivity
The average adult requires 7-9 hours of sleep per night to wake up feeling refreshed. Despite this, the average person in the UK only manages to achieve 6 hours and 19 minutes. Unfortunately, this has a profound impact on employee productivity as two consecutive nights with less than six hours of sleep results in decreased performance which lasts for up to six days.
Lack of sleep can be attributed to busy work schedules, poorly defined work/life balance and financial worries. Taking the impact that a lack of sleep can have on your business into account. It’s worth putting some effort into ensuring your employees get enough sleep. Here are some top tips for promoting healthy employee sleeping habits.
Why do employees need healthy sleeping habits?
Having a good night’s sleep impacts directly on a person’s motivation, concentration, decision making ability and productivity. Moreover, it is essential for both the employees’ personal welfare and that of their organisation.
The benefits from having a good night’s sleep are plentiful, employees are better at problem solving, remain focused, are willing and able to learn and retain new data, and are better able to handle their emotions and other higher-level brain functions.
According to the NHS, sleep deprivation is also well documented to increase the risk of certain health conditions including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Top tips for helping your employees get a good night’s sleep
Introduce a health and wellbeing policy into the workplace
This policy should incorporate a sleep management programme, alongside healthy eating, and exercise. Ensure employees are educated on the benefits of healthy sleep patterns. Sleep screens can be beneficial for employees of particular concern and to promote overall employee wellness.
Educate managers on ways to support employees who are experiencing poor sleep quality
Inform line managers on how to recognise potential signs of sleep deprivation. Tell-tale signs include poor performance, increased stress levels, high caffeine consumption, weight change and dark circles under the eyes.
Promote good relationships between managers and employees
This allows for open and honest conversations between teams so they can work together to rectify any workplace concerns that are impacting on an employee’s sleep.
Create boundaries between work and personal time
With many employees currently working from home, the temptation to check emails and work outside of their contracted hours is ever increasing. It’s important employers support employees in creating a balance between work and home. This can be as simple as ensuring employees have a defined workstation or area which they can ‘exit’ at the end of the working day.
Look at the workplace culture. If emails are being sent late at night, then an unspoken expectation may be felt that employees should be also be working, leading to individuals being unable to ‘switch off’.
Occupational health
Occupational health is a simple and cost-effective way to ensure positive workplace adjustments to tackle employee sleep deprivation. Adjustments include ensuring workloads are manageable, considering flexible working and encouraging employees to take annual leave at regular intervals throughout the year.
How can The Doctors Clinic Group Help?
The Doctors Clinic Group provides occupational health services across a wide variety of sectors in the UK. We work closely with businesses to promote employee wellbeing including healthy sleep habits in the workplace. In addition to this, we have recently launched our corporate sleep wellness screens bringing businesses, the latest sleep monitoring technology to you and your employees.
To find out more about our occupational health services and our corporate sleep screens, get in touch our corporate team to discuss how we can help you reduce absenteeism and improve productivity by ensuring your team gets enough sleep.