Ahead of your weekend, some good news for sleep-deprived workers: A growing number of companies are making it a top priority to help employees get more sleep! We’ve rounded up a few examples:
- Google offers access to “nap pods,” where workers can lay down and take a nap. The pods are designed to block out all light and sound, so you can sleep even while others work around you.
- A company called Litebook is installing a record number of its “Elite” lighting systems. They’re special lights that are designed to help regulate melatonin, which is the body’s sleep hormone. They were first sold to Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators, to help athletes cope with jet lag. But now they’re getting calls from corporations who want the lights for their office workstations and desks.
- Companies like Procter & Gamble and Aurora Health Care, the largest hospital system in Wisconsin, have hired sleep experts to teach workers about better sleep habits. That’s because shift workers, like factory employees and people in healthcare, tend to have the worst sleep patterns of all.
So, why the big push to help workers get more sleep? Because 1-in-3 of us don’t get enough sleep every night. And our chronic exhaustion is costing employers big bucks in lost productivity! Because when we feel “zoned out” at work, we get less done, and one study found that for every half hour of sleep we don’t get the night before, we waste an extra eight minutes at work the next day because we can’t focus. That’s why more companies are willing to invest money to help us get more sleep, even if it means encouraging us to take more “power naps” while we’re actually at work.