1. Sleep and the Workplace

2. Why Are We So Tired? The average American worker spends…
9.5 hours per day working
4.5 additional hours each week working from home
24.3 minutes commuting to and from work daily
31 minutes daily on a lunch “break”

3. What Does This Mean?
Average worker spends almost half of his or her five day work week partaking in work related activities.
58.63 hours/week
hours/month
hours/year

4. Average Nightly Sleep
28% of workers report that a lack of nightly sleep interferes with their daily activities and work performance
The average American worker sleeps on average 38 minutes less per weeknight than recommended
54% of workers use their weekends to catch up on sleep
32% rely on caffeinated drinks or medications to maintain their erratic sleep schedules
63% of workers recognize that they have a lack of sleep

5. How Does this Effect Your Employees?
27% of workers reported it hard to concentrate while at work
19% of workers have reported injuries at work due to a lack of concentration
20% of workers acknowledged a lack of productivity at work due to a lack of sleep

6. How Does This Effect Your Employees?
29% of workers have reported falling asleep at work in the past month
26% of workers reported driving drowsy while operating a company vehicle
12% of workers were late to work because of sleepiness
14% of workers have missed corporate events and meetings due to sleepiness

7. How Does This Effect Operations?
Employees exposed to longer work hours are at higher risks for health problems
Increased sick pay and turnover
Workers with low amounts of sleep are a liability to a company
Errors
Increased Accidents
Lower Productivity
More likely to participate in withdrawal behavior
Less reliable

8. Solution Alertness Management Strategy
Operational management teams can use countermeasures to manage employee tiredness
Understand employee’s physiological needs and whether or not they are being met
Determine the amount of alertness needed to perform tasks along with the risks associated with such if performed with a lack of sleep
Take action and report information to allow employees to recognize and respond to issues surrounding employee fatigue

9. Alertness Management Strategy
Utilize both preventative and operational solutions to deal with employee tiredness
Preventative
Employee strategic naps
Planned naps scheduled and controlled by the corporation to provide the most amount of benefit
Shorter naps (around 30 mins.) maintain the optimal level of alertness
Allow employees a break from mundane tasks (lower withdrawal behavior)
Studies show decreased occurrence of errors and accidents
Higher level of affective commitment (lower turnover)

10. Alertness Management Strategy
Operational
Utilize bright lights in work areas
Utilize all information to study the optimal time for worker naps to take place (study performance decrement)
Provide variety of work to maintain interest
Pay attention to issues such as hours of overtime, schedule, work hours, and frequency of accidents
Communicate information and provide education
Provide information to operators, schedulers, regulatory agencies, accident investigation personnel, etc.
Allows workers to recognize consequences of performance decrement and allows for all areas of operational management to take a proactive approach in decreasing worker fatigue

11. Work Cited All Images Courtesy of Google
"Alertness Management: Naps in Operational Settings." Human Systems Integration Division at NASA Ames. Web. 29 May < factors.arc.nasa.gov/zteam/fcp/pubs/jsr.art.html>.
"Longer Work Days Leave Americans Nodding Off On the Job | National Sleep Foundation - Information on Sleep Health and Safety." National Sleep Foundation - Information on Sleep Health and Safety | Information on Sleep Health and Safety. Web. 29 May < nodding-the-job>.
Brody, Jane E. "Personal Health: New Respect for the Nap, a Pause That Refreshes." OSU Physics: Homepage. Web. 29 May < state.edu/~wilkins/writing/Resources/essays/nap_refreshs.html>.
"Americans Now Spend Over 100 Hours a Year Commuting." U.S. Government Info - Resources. Web. 29 May <
Armour, Stephanie. "USATODAY.com - Lunch Break Becomes Briefer as 'hour' Shrinks." News, Travel, Weather, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. & World - USATODAY.com. 12 June Web. 29 May < usat_x.htm>.