World Sleep Day

World Sleep day

The 2023 theme: Sleep is essential for health.

Just like eating well and exercising, sleep is a behaviour that is foundational to our physical, mental, and social well-being. World Sleep Day plays a vital role in raising awareness of sleep as a ‘human privilege’ that is often compromised by the habits of modern life.

In the UK, it was found that 79% of us struggle to switch off at bedtime and 60% of us wake up in the night with thoughts of work and other worries. Nuffield Health conducted a study which found that only 33% of adults are getting the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep per night. This is then having a financial knock-on effect as it is believed that sleep deprivation costs the UK economy ￡37 billion a year in lost productivity, as poor sleepers tend to have reduced reaction times and trouble concentrating.

Sleeping helps to repair and restore our brains not just our bodies. Therefore, we encourage everyone to question whether they are already getting the best quality sleep possible or, if not, what they can be changing to ensure they are able to.

Tips for a better night sleep:

1. Avoid stress before bed – be aware of key stressors e.g. watching the news, looking at emails and avoid doing this whilst in bed
2. Put down the phone/iPad and do something calming e.g. reading a book, listening to a podcast/sleep story or listening to music
3. Write down any worries in a to do list to help process your thoughts and problems from the day
4. Assess your sleeping environment – a new pillow can be transformative for sleep
5. Ensure you are eating well before bed – nutrients that are proven to increase the quality of sleep one has include Tryptophan and Vitamin C. Tryptophan can be found in foods such as eggs, salmon, nuts, seeds, pineapple, whilst Vitamin C is found in oranges, kale, strawberries, grapefruit, broccoli.
6. Consider the Feng Shui of your bedroom – experts say that your bed is best positioned for a good night sleep when against a solid wall, positioned as far as possible from the door. You should be able to see the door when lying in bed but not directly in line with it.
7. Ensure you’re only using your bed for sleep; get up out of bed if you can’t sleep – this can help improve sleep quality by ensuring that you associate your bed only with sleep and not wakefulness

As employers, we should also be focusing on what we can do to support employees to reduce the level of work worries that could be keeping them up at night. A couple of examples of actions to take include:

1. Setting expectations – letting employees know there is no expectation for them to be replying to emails late at night
2. Training managers to spot the signs of sleep deprivation so that they can discuss their team’s workload, challenges, and causes of them working late.
3. Promote physical health – provide workshops on nutritional advice, suggest getting out over lunch, team exercise classes or walking catch ups. ?

Other useful external resources to support actions:

• Sleep Foundation (https://www.sleepfoundation.org)
• Mind (https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/sleep-problems/about-sleep-and-mental-health/)
• Nuffield Health (https://www.nuffieldhealth.com/sleep)