Why should you incorporate sleep into your wellness programme in 2016?

Across the developed world tiredness as a result of sleep deprivation is becoming so common that the Centres for Disease Control has identified it as the next “public health epidemic.”

Many companies have excellent employee health programs. Generally, they are often oriented toward physical activity and nutrition. However, there is another facet of employee health that is often overlooked, to the detriment of employee well-being, productivity and safety.

Poor sleep has been linked to significant increases in the rates of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes and cancer as well as minor ill-health. These result in direct medical costs as well as significant indirect costs associated with absenteeism and presenteeism.

When we suffer from poor sleep we suffer numerous physical and cognitive impairments which can lead to poor performance and human error. Sleep deprivation affects blood flow to three areas of the brain which play a crucial role in: decision making, attention span and the speed at which we adopt new information.

Our fast-paced lifestyle creates a situation that produces poor sleep habits and may mask and exacerbate more critical and life-threatening health problems. All of these lead to decreased productivity, higher safety risks, and increased costs resulting from health-related absences.

Ultimately tiredness and fatigue is unproductive, costly, unhealthy and unsafe.

How can you engage and educate staff?

We know that many companies like to run specific wellbeing topics, often for just 1 to 3 months. Covering sleep and personal energy will potentially benefit a great number of your staff. Third Pillar of Health has designed and developed programmes that work for YOUR audience.

We have worked with leading sleep research scientists to put together our online assessment and training. Our programme is accredited by the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management.

We offer a comprehensive assessment for shift workers OR our slimmed down “3-minute” assessment for “office” workers.

Accessible across PC, smartphone and tablet your staff can voluntarily log in and complete our assessment at a time that suits them – it could even be when commuting.

On completion each employee receives their own personalised report with quick information and links to more in-depth information, depending on how they’ve answered our questions. Staff can access factsheets and videos on sleep and the influence of lifestyle factors such as alcohol, caffeine, exercise, smoking and stress to help understand how to improve sleep and personal energy.

We also provide your organisation with a composite report (no individual data) which helps you understand the extent, impact and causes of tiredness and fatigue in staff.