We're all well aware of what lack of sleep can do to an individual. From feeling irritated to being unable to function properly, there are quite a few annoying symptoms that accompany lack of sleep. So, while it was already known that there were certain damages a person's routine went through if they didn't get enough sleep, what was unclear until now was just how much of that lost time could make a difference. Researchers have now found that losing out on just 16 minutes worth of sleep can have such a huge impact on a person that it can start affecting their jobs.
A study was conducted which found that if you reduce your sleeping hours during a working week, it could greatly affect your job performance. For the study, researchers surveyed 130 healthy employees who have at least one school-aged child. Amongst these people, participants who had slept for 16 minutes lesser than they usually do reported certain cognitive issues the next day. Whereas the others did just fine.
This proved that these people were more likely to be unfocused on their tasks at work when they hadn't slept properly. The tired participants reported raised stress levels which occurred due to them trying to find a proper work-life balance. Because of this, they either ended up sleeping later than usual or woke up earlier than they usually did.
"These cyclical associations reflect that employees' sleep is vulnerable to daily cognitive stress and also a contributor to cognitively stressful experiences," said one professor. "Findings from this study provide empirical evidence for why workplaces need to make more efforts to promote their employees' sleep. Good sleepers may be better performers at work due to greater ability to stay focused an on-task with fewer errors and interpersonal conflicts."
To confirm whether lack of sleep actually did affect a person's ability to focus at work, the researchers also compared data of sleep loss during the weekdays and the weekends. It was found that when a person had a holiday the next day, lack of sleep the previous night did not affect them as much. This proves just how important sleep is for a person to be able to manage their responsibilities at work. Stay tuned for more updates.
