The importance of good quality sleep and how to help employees improve it

We all know sleep is vital for our physical and mental health. While duration is key, with the sweet spot being around seven to eight hours, sleep quality is often overlooked. Justin Jones, head of physiology at Nuffield Health, explains how poor-quality sleep can affect your employees, and what tips you can give them to improve their sleep. Justin explores this topic further with a panel of experts in Nuffield Health’s ‘Sleep, fatigue and the rise of ‘always on’ culture’ webinar.

The 2019 Britain’s Healthiest Workplace report revealed that not only were those who slept less than seven hours more likely to smoke, have poor diets, be obese and report depression, but they were also less engaged with work, reporting a third more absenteeism and presenteeism. This underlines the importance of sleep quality. Those who reported “poor” or “very poor” sleep were also significantly less productive than those who reported “good” or “very good” sleep, reporting total productivity loss of 67 days vs 25 days respectively.

Most of us have had the odd night of disturbed sleep for one reason or another, but now more and more of us are experiencing disrupted sleep due to the pandemic.

Covid-19 has caused a huge amount of anxiety for many over the past year, from health fears and job worries, to home-schooling struggles and loneliness, all of which can keep employees up at night. Changes in habits haven’t helped – many people are working and sleeping at different hours, which can in turn upset circadian rhythms.

And even if employees are regularly getting their nightly quota, they may still wake up feeling lethargic and tired, relying on coffee and sugary snacks before they can reach the evening and look forward to getting their head down. If so, there's a good chance their sleep quality needs some work.

The impact of poor-quality sleep

Going for long periods of time with poor sleep quality can disrupt metabolism, hormone regulation and growth and repair. This can lead to serious health conditions:

Obesity: During sleep, your body regulates the hormones which control your appetite. Two key ones are ghrelin, which makes us feel hungry, and leptin, which signals when we’re full. Poor sleep is associated with higher levels of ghrelin and lower levels of leptin, which can result in more calories being consumed and, over time, an increase in weight.

Hypertension (high blood pressure): While sleeping, your resting heart rate and blood pressure are lower, especially during the deeper stages of sleep. Therefore, the worse you sleep, the longer your heart has to work harder.

Diabetes: Insulin is a hormone that helps control blood glucose levels. Both reduced sleep quality and quantity has been shown to lower insulin sensitivity, making it harder for your body to regulate blood glucose levels, which can lead to diabetes.

Immunity: Your immune system is strengthened during deep sleep. So if you’re failing to get into the deeper stages of sleep, or not sleeping for long enough, it can lead to reduced immunity.

Accidents: Poor sleep doesn’t just affect your future health, there are immediate risks too. Figures from the Health and Safety Executive reveal that work-related accidents cost the UK as much as £240 million per year. Also, driving while tired can be as dangerous as drunk driving, with fatigue being implicated in 20% of accidents on major roads.

Work performance: A lack of sleep can lead to poor emotional regulation, stifled creativity, reduced memory formation and impaired problem solving, all of which are likely to impact performance at work.

Stress: Sleep deprivation can activate the body’s fight-or-flight response, which increases emotional arousal, making employees feel on edge. This affects both physical and mental processes, placing the body under stress, while impacting energy levels and mood.

Seven ways to improve sleep quality

The good news is there are several simple things your employees can do to get a better night’s sleep. Through an awareness-raising campaign, aim to get employees talking about prioritising their sleep. The below can be shared with employees to help them improve their sleep quality:

1. Stick to a routine: Aim to go to sleep and wake up at the same time, even at the weekends. The more consistent you are, the more consistent your sleep will be. In fact, naturally waking up at the same time each day is a sign of good sleep health.

2. Have a warm bath: Soaking in the tub before bed increases your body temperature, but the subsequent cooling down afterwards is a strong signal to the body that it’s night time and that you should get ready to sleep.

3. Control the room temperature: 16 to 18°C is considered an ideal bedroom temperature, so try to control this as best you can. With the summer months approaching, consider a fan if your bedroom gets too hot. Plus, the white noise it produces can help light sleepers.

4. Avoid alcohol and caffeine: Most of us know that a cup of coffee might not be great for sleep health, but some turn to alcohol because they think a nightcap will help them to nod off. In fact, alcohol actually impairs our ability to cycle efficiently through the stages of sleep where we have the greatest physical and mental restoration.

5. Improve your work-life balance: Try to keep the bedroom a space for sleeping. Aim to disconnect from work emails, calls and texts between certain hours and/or at weekends. With more and more people working from home, research suggests that those who work from their bedroom are more likely to have disturbed sleep than those working from a dedicated office space.

6. Reduce lighting: For an hour or so before bed, avoid bright lights, turn down the brightness and use night mode on your phone, and restrict other light-emitting devices such as TVs and computers. Light tells the body that it’s daytime, so if you’re getting too much before you sleep, you’ll reduce your production of melatonin – the hormone that makes you sleepy.

7. Exercise regularly: Moderate-intensity exercise, which finishes at least 90 minutes before bed, can improve sleep health while resetting the body’s sleep-wake cycle. Try to avoid HIIT-based exercise prior to sleep as this increases heart rate and adrenaline, affecting your ability to fall asleep.

For more information on the impact poor sleep may be having on your employees, click here to view our webinar on ‘Sleep, fatigue and the rise of ‘always on’ culture.

The author is Justin Jones, professional head of physiology at Nuffield Health.

This article is provided by Nuffield Health.