Sleeping Well: The Gateway to Employee Wellness

Abstract

Our study of 419 white-collar professionals and 275 rotating shift workers indicates that 79.2 per cent of the white-collar participants and 11 per cent of the rotating shift workers endured poor sleep quality. Forty-eight per cent of white-collar participants and 18 per cent of the shift workers reported suffering from excessive daytime sleepiness. Poor sleep quality has been associated with obesity, hypertension, diabetes and a host of other adverse health outcomes including poor mental health. Studies show that among organisations offering lifestyle management programme as part of their employee wellness programmes, the most targeted behaviours encompass nutrition/weight control activities (79%), smoking (77%) and fitness (72%). However, there is hardly any organisation that offers a well-planned intervention to promote healthy sleep behaviour. Sleep appears to represent a neglected dominion of health behaviour in terms of employee wellness. If sleep health and wellness programmes are endorsed in the workplace, there are several positive outcomes such as productivity enhancement, less work injury, increasing employee satisfaction, good physical and mental health that are likely to supervene, all of which generate a better working environment.