As a manager, you want to know hidden costs. What would you give for a 5-percent or 10-percent improvement in your bottom line, or in the performance of your workers? |
It's as if you stayed up one full night. |
Not getting enough sleep impairs our work performance, increases the risk for injuries and makes it more difficult to get along with others. Without sufficient sleep it is more difficult to concentrate, make careful decisions and follow instructions, we are more likely to make mistakes or errors, and are more prone to being impatient and lethargic. Our attention, memory and reaction time are all affected. But while we may recognize these symptoms, we do not always associate them as being symptoms of sleep loss. |
The physiological part pertaining to safety, to alertness -- those things are absolutely clear now. The challenge is how are we going to get that embedded into the culture to where it's accepted and it's the right thing to do? |
Thomas Edison invented the light bulb because he thought sleep was a waste of time. But he was a 10-hour sleeper -- six hours a night and two, two-hour naps during the day. |
Whereas in the United States we pretend this isn't a biological issue. We just struggle through. We pay for that. |