Employee Sleep Education & Training: Benefits & Solutions for Your Workforce

Want to improve the health, safety, and performance of your workforce? Invest in their overall well-being and provide them with sleep education and training.

Consider this:

  • Sleep-deprived workers are twice as likely to miss a day of work than their peers who get sufficient sleep.
  • Excessively sleepy workers are 7 times more likely to have a workplace accident than good sleepers.
  • Drivers (commuters as well as professional drivers) who get 6 hours of sleep or less are 33% more likely to have an accident on the road than drivers who get 7 or 8 hours of sleep

Learn more about the ROI of providing sleep education and the added benefits of customizing training to your staff and their work schedules (e.g., daytime staff vs shift work staff).

Sleep: A health and safety concern in the workplace

Getting enough sleep is critical for everyone, no matter the job and no matter the work schedule. Insufficient sleep has both short and long-term effects on performance, safety, and health. Sleep deprivation causes deficits similar to alcohol intoxication: decreased vigilance, reaction times, ability to learn, coordination, and memory. Researchers equate the effects of being awake for 20 hours or more with the effects of a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08%.

In addition to neurocognitive deficits, chronic sleep deprivation is linked to a long list of chronic health conditions including anxiety, dementia, depression, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes.

How much of an issue is employee sleep deprivation in the workplace?

Safety: The scope of the sleep insufficiency problem in the workplace

Workers’ safety performance decreases when they are fatigued. Estimates suggest that more than 35% of American adults and 44% of factory workers and plant operators do not get the 7 or more hours of recommended sleep per night (or per 24 hours). A phenomenon that causes employers to bear the staggering costs of 1.2 million lost productivity working days each year.

In addition, employers pay costs associated with fatigue-related workplace accidents and incidents. One study found that insomnia alone may be the cause of more than 274,000 occupational accidents and errors, costing U.S. companies $31 billion every year.

Sleep deprivation is a global problem that has been recognized as a “public health epidemic.” Considering almost half of all Americans feel sleepy during the day between 3 and 7 days each week and 60% of night shift workers complain about sleep loss due to their work schedule, it is inevitable that your organization is bearing some of these fatigue-related risks and expenses.

What can my operation do to mitigate the costs of fatigued workers?

Education: How to help your workers get the sleep they need to stay safe at work

Educating workers on the impact of sleep deprivation at work is a win/win solution for both employers and employees. Whether you run a 24/7 or 9 to 5 operation, your workers will benefit from getting information that is designed to improve their sleep quality and boost their sleep duration.

Sleep Education & Training Workshops for day workers or shift workers is one way to provide information to your workers. Workshops, such as Circadian’s Sleep 101 Workshop, are designed to:

  1. Create awareness about the importance of sleep for healthy living and improved productivity.
  2. Inform participants about the health and safety risks associated with insufficient sleep, and.
  3. Offer sleep strategies that can be put to use immediately.

In addition, easy-to-read informational booklets such as Circadian’s Good Sleep Guide that contain authoritative information and practical tips can help your workers recognize the causes and consequences of sleep insufficiency, and take the steps needed to improve their sleep. Publications like this guide can be used in conjunction with a workshop or as a stand-alone resource.

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Next Steps

Recognizing and emphasizing the importance of sleep to worker health and performance is a profitable safety strategy for all employers. A well-rested employee is an asset and tends to enhance the bottom line while a sleep-deprived employee can result in significant added costs, either from fatigue-related incidents or lost productivity.

Employers can take simple, low-cost steps to help their workers arrive at work well-rested. Providing sleep education and training resources (e.g., workshops and informational booklets)  is a straightforward safety strategy that will help to mitigate the risks and costs associated with fatigued workers.

As the global leader in providing 24/7 workforce performance and safety solutions for businesses that operate around the clock, Circadian is uniquely positioned to help your organization determine the best approach to optimize the sleep of your workers. We work closely with corporate management to ensure that our clients’ workers are equipped and empowered with knowledge, strategies, tools, and resources to support sleep improvement.

For more information about CIRCADIAN and our sleep education and training workshops and Lunch & Learns, please visit www.circadian.com email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 781-439-6300.

The Nuts and Bolts of an Effective Fatigue & Sleep Training Program

How a Fatigue & Sleep Training Program can improve your employees’ health and reduce your bottom line.

What is a Fatigue Risk Management Plan and How to Develop One?

In operations with work hours beyond the traditional 9-5, fatigue is an inherent operational challenge because our bodies are not designed to operate around-the-clock. This has led to the development of  a number of safety initiatives designed to reduce the costs, risks, and liabilities of fatigue and the human error incidents that comes from fatigue.

Management vs Employee-Selected Work Schedules: The Clear Winner

Operational decisions based on shift scheduling myths can often prevent an operation from reaching its full potential in terms of operational costs, productivity, efficiency and safety.

If your operation doesn’t involve employees in work schedule changes... it may be falling prey to these myths.

Five Reasons to Prioritize Nurse Fatigue Management


Both registered nurses and employers have a joint responsibility to “reduce risks from nurse fatigue and to create and sustain a culture of safety, a healthy work environment, and a work-life balance.”

Q&A: How often should shift workers take breaks?

Many employers provide work breaks to employees, whether paid or unpaid; however, this common practice isn’t federally mandated – with the exception of required breaks for nursing mothers. Fewer than half of the states require employers to provide a meal break, and the specifications of these required breaks vary by state.

Shift Schedule Selection: 5 Myths & the Truths Behind Them

We have come across our fair share of shift work myths, especially those involving shift schedule selection, throughout CIRCADIAN’s 30 years of consulting a variety of 24/7 industries and operations.

8 Major Advantages of 12-Hour Shifts: A Manager's Perspective

Have you considered changing your workplace schedule? Uncertain about the benefits of a 12-hour shift? Are you trying to rationalize the change with the workforce and upper management? Here are a few key insights that might help with your decision regarding a shift schedule change.

With companies searching for ways to increase productivity and reduce costs, many managers are working with their employees to evaluate alternative shift scheduling practices. There are a variety of scheduling systems available, and there is an endless array of opinions supporting and refuting each one.

While there are mixed opinions regarding different shift lengths, 12-hour shift schedules are continuing to grow in popularity. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Increased productivity, reduced errors

With a 12-hour shift schedule, there are only two shift turnovers per day, resulting in fewer opportunities for miscommunications and production disruptions that may occur during shift changeover periods. This can translate into increased productivity, along with lower error and accident rates.

2. Increased continuity and accountability

On most days, crew A turns the plant over to crew B at night, and then crew B turns the plant back to crew A the next morning. No one finding a problem can “pass the buck” to a third crew, as may occur with 8-hour shifts. Crews are motivated to hand over and receive their jobs with the problems fixed or at least identified and communicated.

3. Reduced adaptation time

Many shift workers need a ramp-up period to get adjusted to each shift, i.e., adjusting monitors and organizing tools, etc. Many state that they are “in the groove” at the 8-hour point, and would rather continue because it’s easier and because 12-hour shifts provide more days off.

4. Higher project completion rate

On 12-hour shifts, a greater number of long tasks and projects can be completed within a shift, such as extended maintenance tasks. Considering that most maintenance tasks require extensive lock out/tag out procedures, substantial time can be lost in preparing for a safe crew change-over that involves uncompleted tasks.

5. Reduced absenteeism

Shift workers often “think twice” about taking a shift off, because doing so uses 12 hours of leave time and/or can result in a smaller paycheck. They also tend to feel more accountable to their crew or to the person who may need to be called in on a day off for 12 hours of relief coverage.

6. Lower attrition and turnover

The increased number of days and weekends off is too compelling an incentive to encourage a return to 8-hour workdays, as 12-hour shifts result in 91 fewer shifts per year and double the weekend time off (26 vs 13 days) in 24/7 operations. In an industry-wide survey of chemical plants, 96.5% of employees working 12-hour shifts reported no interest in changing back to an 8-hour schedule.

7. Improved morale

Twelve-hour shifts typically prove more popular with both shiftworkers and their families. Stress is reduced, and the quality of work and home life is improved greatly.

8. More dedicated employees

During their three to four consecutive days on duty (with 12-hour shifts), shiftworkers tend to concentrate more on their jobs. On 12-hour workdays, employees are more likely to avoid major social events, excessive alcohol consumption or physically taxing activities in their fewer hours of free time.

The multitude of benefits associated with 12-hour shift scheduling has gained the attention of shiftwork managers, many of whom have switched their scheduling practices to improve employee performance and operational efficiency.

Of course, there are a variety complex factors that influence which schedule is best for your workplace, such as: number of employees, industry type, and 5 vs 7 day operation schedules – not the least of which are the labor relations issues associated with scheduling changes. These factors, along with others, should be taken into serious consideration whenever contemplating shift scheduling decisions.

Want to learn more about 12-hour shift schedules?

Download our free CIRCADIAN white paper, "Advantages & Disadvantages of 12-Hour Shifts: A Balanced Perspective"

 

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Lean Staffing: Three Unfortunate Realities

In most 24/7 operations, there are a fixed number of positions to be filled on each shift. Because of this, staffing levels greatly impact overtime rates for employees.

Overtime and the U.S. Work Week

Employees in the U.S. work the highest number of work hours per year compared to the rest of the world—about 70 more hours per year than workers in Japan, and 350 hours more than in Europe. Longer workweeks and fewer weeks of vacation in the U.S. combine to produce this discrepancy.

Advantages and Disadvantages of 12-Hour Shifts

Twelve-hour shifts are still one of the most frequently debated topics in shift work management. Managers, shift workers, union representatives, federal regulators, corporate policy-makers, and academic experts continue to question and debate how 12-hour shifts compare to 8-hour shifts.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Common 12-Hour Shift Schedules

There are many types of 12-hour schedules, and for each general type there are dozens of variations. Out of the hundreds of mathematical possibilities, many companies face a difficult challenge in finding a schedule that best meets the needs of both management and employees.

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Interested in Shiftwork, Scheduling & Fatigue Risk Management Best Practices?

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