Insomnia is costing us more than just lost sleep

The battle against insomnia is affecting productivity in the work place, according to a new study. The disorder costs the average U.S. worker about 11 days of work in lost productivity every year. The study was published in the September 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

Findings were compiled from a sample of 7,428 employees who were a part of the larger American Insomnia Study. Employees answered questions about their sleep habits and their work performance. According to the study, other estimates have been done before. However, they relied on smaller samples, as well as medical databases that only focused on insomnia patients who had been treated already.

Insomnia rates in the sample were about 23% in employees. It was found to be lower in workers who were 65 and older. Insomnia rates were higher among working women than working men.

Researchers say that these findings could justify adopting screening and treatment programs in the workplace. On average, the cost of treating insomnia can be anywhere from $200 a year for a sleeping pill or up $1,200 for behavioral therapy.

The study also found that insomnia rates were lower in people with less than a high school education and in college graduates. People with a high school education or a little college education had higher rates of insomnia.

Photo By: Mircea Turcan

Workplace Disability & The Value of Sleep

The business cost of insomnia goes beyond loss of employee productivity. Workers with regular sleep disturbances go on disability more often and take longer to return to work.

A study published in the October, 2010 issue of the journal SLEEP investigated how insomnia impacts workplace health. Researchers found sleep disturbances predicted later workplace disability for mental disorders, physical illnesses and musculoskeletal disorders.

The study followed more than 56,000 active public employees in Finland for more than three years. Each of the government and public hospital employees was surveyed about sleep disturbances and preexisting health conditions at the start of the study. The authors used national records to identify which employees went on disability during the follow-up after three years.

Workers who had existing medical conditions, used prescribed pain killers or regularly performed manual labor were most likely to report severe sleep disturbance which occurred more 5-7 days per week.

Over the course of the study, 7 percent of the employees went on disability. About 1 in 3 never returned to work. Statistical analysis shows people who reported sleep disturbances had a higher likelihood of going on work disability and not returning to work. The results were adjusted for complicating factors such as shift work, depression and preexisting health problems.

Worker disability is only one of the business costs of sleep disturbances. Insomnia can also make you worse at your job.

Sometimes your job may be the source of the sleep problems. In 2009 the Sleep Education Blog reported on studies that tied high stress work and low social support at the workplace to long-term insomnia.

When Sleeping in on Weekends Isn't Enough

Make sleep a priority during the work week. Catching up on your sleep during the weekend may not be enough to stave off the effects of sleep loss.

A study published in the August issue of SLEEP found the impairments caused by sleep-deprivation such as lapses in attention and delayed reaction time remained even after sleeping in for a day. Full recovery after sleep restriction may take multiple nights of extended sleep.

The laboratory-based study involved 159 healthy adults who were about 30 years old. More than half of the participants were African American. All but 17 of the subjects had to sleep from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. for five consecutive nights. On the sixth night they were randomly assigned to one of six lengths of recovery sleep.

The participants took a 30-minute long computerized neurobehavioral assessment every two hours throughout the duration of the study. The assessment included a Psychomotor Vigilance Test and the Karonlinska Sleepiness Scale. A modified Maintenance of Wakefulness Test was also given at the start of the study, after the fifth night and during the recovery day.

Researchers noticed a reduction in impairment after the night of recovery sleep. The improvements increased for lengthier sleep times, the effects of sleep loss were never fully eliminated. Lapses of attention, subjective sleepiness, reaction times and fatigue scores were above baseline for all 27 participants assigned to 10 hours of recovery sleep.

Solving long-term sleep debt takes more than one night of recovery sleep. Because most people are unable to stay asleep for much longer than 10 hours it’s impossible to close the gap in a single night.



Another interesting finding involved the participants who were assigned to extreme sleep restriction on the sixth night instead of recovery sleep. Performance and alertness significantly deteriorated after a final night with little to no sleep.
The study shows that burning the candle at both ends during the workweek will hurt your ability to perform on the job and the problems may not end when the weekend rolls around.

Morning Larks Lead Better Careers, Chronotype Expert Claims

The business world wakes up bright and early and the evening types have no choice but to fight their natural inclination to keep up with competition. For this reason it’s the morning types that hold an advantage at the office. The body of research by chronotype expert Christoph Randler suggests people who reach their peak performance in the a.m. hours seem to be better positioned for career success.

Randler was featured this month in the Harvard Business Journal’s “Defend Your Research” series. His latest research concludes morning larks are more likely to be of the “take charge” type. A sample of 367 college students responded to surveys with questions about when they tend to be most energetic and whether they are willing and able to take action to change a situation to their advantage. The students who reported they are at their best in the morning hours more often agreed with proactive statements about themselves.

He said its proactivity that leads to better job performance, greater career success and higher wages. Randler’s earlier studies suggest the advantage starts in school. The morning bell rings bright and early at most schools, and from a young age the morning types benefit. They tend to get better grades, which gets them into better colleges and then nets them better jobs out of school. They’re poised to start work early at a high level of performance once they join the 8 to 5 business world.

Despite how it sounds, evening people aren’t condemned to a life of destitution. Research shows they’re often smarter, creative, more outgoing and have a better sense of humor than their button-down counterparts. They can thrive given a more suitable schedule and environment.

These sweeping statements are a bit of a simplification, Randler admits. Evening types can be proactive and some can slightly shift their daily sleep-wake schedules without difficulty. Other research shows our chronotypes shift towards the mornings as we age. The effect may be due to the adult responsibilities such as working and raising children.

If you don’t know whether you’re a morning or evening type there’s an easy way to tell, Randler states. Evening chronotypes sleep in an average of two hours longer on weekends, while morning chronotypes are up bright and early as usual.

Image by Joey Parsons

Untreated Sleep Apnea Affects Job Performance

Two new studies show that untreated obstructive sleep apnea can have a negative impact on job performance.

A study in the June 1 issue of the journal Sleep involved 150 people; they were all referred to a sleep center in California for suspected sleep apnea. Their average age was 44 years; each of them was employed at the time of the study.

An overnight sleep study confirmed the presence of sleep apnea in 83 of the participants. Results show that work productivity suffered when people had sleep apnea and excessive daytime sleepiness.

They were almost 14 times more likely to have had job-performance problems in the past four weeks. Examples include falling asleep on the job or missing a day of work. They also were more likely to report decreased job effectiveness.

Results also show that people with OSA and EDS were almost four times more likely to have had their work duty modified in the past five years. Examples include taking a pay cut or missing a promotion. Other examples include changing jobs or a job schedule.

Another new study involved 957 people in Finland who were diagnosed with OSA; they were compared with 4,785 people who did not have sleep apnea.

Results show that the risk of lost work days was increased by 61 percent in men with OSA; it was increased by 80 percent in women with sleep apnea.

In women this risk was already increased five years before they were diagnosed; in men the highest risk appeared one year before the year of their diagnosis.

It is estimated that about 80 percent of men and 90 percent of women with moderate to severe sleep apnea are undiagnosed. Are you one of these people?

You can find out with an overnight sleep study. Contact an AASM-accredited sleep center near you for help.

On SleepEducation.com you can learn more about how a sleep study may be your best investment for long-term health. You also can answer these questions to learn more about your risk for sleep apnea.

Unable to Sleep, Unable to Work: Insomnia & Disability

How you sleep - or don't sleep - can affect how you work. Studies show that insomnia can have a negative impact on the workplace.

It can result in decreased productivity. It also can increase absences from work.

Now a new study from Norway suggests that insomnia can even increase the risk of long-term work disability.

The study involved 6,599 working adults. They were between 40 and 45 years of age.

Results show that insomnia was a strong predictor of permanent work disability. After controlling for other factors, people with insomnia were almost two times more likely to receive disability pension.

The same research team found similar results in a 2008 study. It appeared in the journal Sleep. That study involved 37,302 adults. They were between the ages of 20 and 66. Again, insomnia was associated with increased odds of receiving disability pension.

In Norway you can quality for disability if your earning ability is impaired by at least 50 percent. The U.S. Social Security Administration has a stricter definition of disability.

Social Security only pays for total disability. Five questions determine if you qualify. Learn more about disability benefits from the SSA.

About 10 percent of adults have chronic insomnia that lasts for more than a month. You can get help for chronic insomnia at an AASM-accredited sleep center near you.

Learn more about job stress and insomnia.

How Much Does Insomnia Cost?

Insomnia is the most common sleep complaint. The burden of insomnia often includes anxiety and frustration. It also involves a high economic cost.

A study in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Sleep examines the economic burden of insomnia. The study found that the indirect costs of untreated insomnia are much greater than the direct costs of treating it. The specific results may surprise you.

The study shows that the highest cost of insomnia is in lost hours of productivity at work. This accounts for 76 percent of all insomnia costs. The study estimates that a person with insomnia loses a whopping 27.6 days worth of productivity each year.

The second-highest cost of insomnia is attributed to absences from work. The study estimates that people with insomnia miss 4.36 days of work per year because of the disorder.

What about the direct costs of treating insomnia? Again the results are surprising. The study found that the highest direct cost is related to using alcohol as a sleep aid. Alcohol accounts for five percent of all insomnia costs.

(By the way: Alcohol is a terrible sleep aid. It may make you sleepy at first. But it will lead to disrupted sleep during the night.)

Consultations with a doctor account for about three percent of all insomnia costs. In the study less than one percent of the total annual cost of insomnia is related to prescription medications.

Here it is important to put the results in context. The study was conducted in Quebec, Canada. The authors report that Quebec’s centralized health-care system keeps medical costs low. The study also states that most medications used for sleep in Canada are inexpensive generic drugs.

Yet it is clear that the overall economic impact of insomnia is great. So what do you think? Does insomnia cause you to underperform at work?