My Experience with sleep deprivation in workplace
Have you ever felt like a zombie? Standing in the nail spa, I felt like I would fall asleep in the next second. I had gone to bed at 1:00 a.m. and got up at 6:30 a.m, the only six and a half hours of sleep time really made me tired. When customers called for booking appointments, I lost the engagement to serve them. I kept yawning. I had a drowsy look and my eyes couldn’t open. Every cell in my body was looking for sleep. Sleep deprivation negatively influenced my work performance. Sleeping late was a major mistake for my health and productivity and now I know why.
What happens during sleep?
Foley (2020), a certified sleep science coach with a deep understanding of what it means to struggle with sleep, interprets what happens during sleep. Basically, there are four sleep stages. In the first stage of sleep, brain and body activities slow down but do not stop completely. Then, our body slows breathing, relaxes muscles in the second stage. At the same time, our eye movement stops. The third stage is called deep sleep. During this time, our muscle tone and breathing rate decrease. Third stage allows our body to grow and recover. The last stage is called REM sleep. REM sleep plays an important role in our cognitive functions. Our vivid dreams mostly appear in this period.
Sleep deprivation affects workers’ emotions
In the study “Why healthy sleep is good for business” by Barnes and Watson (2019), authors claim that sleep deprivation causes employees to experience negative mood and become less effective in customer-facing roles. Customer services represent the company to solve customers’ problems. Bad customer services increase the risk of customers’ complaints and negative customer experiences. Barnes and Watson (2019) highlight managers are more challenged to inspire sleep deprived employees. Authors detailedly explain that employees who are sleep deprived by 2.2 hours will think their leader has a 7 percent decrease in personal attractiveness.
Sleep deprivation negatively influences work outcome
According to the report “Why Healthy Sleep is Good for Business” done by Barnes et al. (2019), sleep deprivation can weaken the ability of employees to pay attention to work and use their knowledge to make good decisions. Authors explain that many memory functions take place during sleep. The lack of sleep not only weakens employees memory and learning ability, but also damages the benefits of their training efforts. Moreover, authors claim that sleep deprivation increases task switching costs and damages employees’ multiple tasking performance, decreasing the workpiece ratio of employees. Aside from employees, managers and entrepreneurs also suffer negative influence from sleep deprivation. Barnes et al. (2019) gives a detailed example, 75 hours of sleep deprivation increases 40 percent possibility of managers to take risks. Also, entrepreneurs who are sleep deprived are more likely to meet bad chances and waste their resources.
Sleep deprivation affects workers emotional intelligence
Killgore et al. (2007) conducted the first study to examine the influences of sleep deprivation on emotional intelligence (EQ) and adaptive coping under laboratory conditions. The authors claim that there is a direct relationship between sleep deprivation and emotional intelligence. Killgore et al. (2007) recruited twenty-six volunteers to complete the EQ Inventory and Constructive Thinking Inventory at their rest time and again after they have 55.5 and 58 hours of continuous awake. Through the experiment, the authors found that the participants’ average EQ decreases by 4.12 score points. The total EQ scores decrease significantly as a cause of sleep deprivation. As a result, authors state that sleep deprivation has a negative effect on emotional intelligence. More specialty, sleep deprivation affects interpersonal awareness, stress management, and interpersonal skills.
The economic of sleep problem
Barnes and Watson (2019) highlight the negative economic effect of sleep problems. The sleep problem increases the usage rate of employees’ healthcare, thereby influencing company’s financial health. Authors mention that one analysis illustrates the poor sleep problem among shift-workers causes an “estimated economic impact of between $30 and 40 billion U.S. annually in terms of direct and indirect health care costs”. The direct and indirect expense of sleep disorders in Australia are estimated at 4.5 billion, about 0.8 percent of GDP.
Advices to Company
Company is responsible for making sure every employee has enough sleep. According to the CDC Workplace Health Resource Center, there are few strategies that companies can use.
1.Educating employees about the importance of sleep.
2.Modify the workplace (lighting, noice, temperature) to increase alertness.