Early to bed and early to rise, or at least the right amount of sleep, will leave you with a happier boss.
New research from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki indicates that simply getting the appropriate amount of sleep can reduce the number of sick days you need to use. The study is published in the journal Sleep.
The study analyzed a survey of more than 3,700 men and women in Finland who were between the ages of 30 and 64. The participants were followed for an average of 7 years.
Information of participants’ sleep behavior and patterns was collected by questionnaires, and the researchers obtained data on their health from physical exams carried out by field physicians. The team also collected information about work absence due to sickness from the Social Insurance Institution of Finland. This records all absences due to sickness that last over 10 days.
The results show that the risk of being absent from work due to sickness for 10 days or more rose sharply among people who said they slept less than 6 hours or more than 9 hours a night.
Feeling more tired than others, waking very early, using sleeping pills, and experiencing symptoms of insomnia, were also linked to a significant rise in working days lost to sickness absence.
The team also estimates that the direct cost of sickness absence to government and employers could drop by up to 28% by fully addressing problems with workers’ sleep patterns.
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