Did you know that nearly 4 out of 10 employees suffer from fatigue during their workday? 

They do, according to a study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. As a result, these employees are less productive and are more likely to incur workers’ compensation claims. These tired employees cause higher operating costs and higher injury rates, not only their own, but others’ as well. They need more rest!

Based on interviews with 29,000 adult U.S. employees, 38 percent of them reported they experienced "low levels of energy, poor sleep, or a feeling of fatigue" in the last two weeks. You might not guess that those most likely to be affected are:

• Women employees
• Employees under age 50
• Employees who describe themselves as white, not minority
• Employees in high-control positions (higher paid positions with decision-making responsibilities)

Perhaps you are surprised by the fact that American women workers report more fatigue than men. According to the findings of a poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, 67 out of 100 women report they often experience a lack of sleep, 60 out of 100 women report not getting enough sleep as often as 3 or more nights a week, and 43 out of 100 women admit drowsiness is interfering with their daily activities. Employed, single females get the least amount of sleep, less than six hours per night. (For comparison, medical experts recommend that adults sleep from seven to eight hours each night.) The lack of sufficient sleep affects women’s work attendance directly, with 1 out of 5 women reporting they were late for work more than once in the previous month as a result of a sleep problem or because they were too tired, and nearly 1 out of 10 missing work at least once a month because of a lack of sleep or a sleep problem.

Fatigue leads to lower productivity for all workers, as a result of health issues. Tired employees reported losing an average of 5.6 hours per week of productive time for health-related causes, while non-fatigued employees reported losing just 3.3 hours, which means 70% more lost time due to health-related causes for fatigued employees! (This does not even factor in any reduced productivity due to fatigued employees’ poor concentration and slower working pace.)

Workers compensation claims also increase for workers who are short of sleep. A study conducted by Circadian Technologies, Inc., a sleep research firm, found that workers’ compensation incidents occur at a rate 15 times higher at workplaces and on work shifts where employees experience severe fatigue problems, compared to job situations where employees do not report fatigue problems. It also found that workplaces where employee napping is banned incurred workers comp costs 400 percent (!) higher than workplaces that did not have such bans.

So what can you do to combat the problem of fatigued employees? There are a variety of ways to encourage your employees to get sufficient sleep so that they can be their most productive (and safest) while at work:

• Be sure everyone knows that healthy people generally need 7 to 8 hours of sleep every 24 hours.
• Encourage all employees to consult with a health professional of their choice to learn how much sleep they personally should get daily.
• Observe work activities closely and encourage obviously fatigued employees to consult with a health professional about the condition. (Fatigue can be caused by medical conditions -- depression, flu, heart disease, among others -- and not just lack of sleep.)
• Consider permitting employees to take brief nap of 15- to 20-minutes once in an eight-hour work shift. (Employees can nap at their workstation, in a break room, in a designated nap room, or in their vehicle in the parking lot. Or, set up a nap room, a dedicated break room furnished to make nap-taking comfortable.)
• Encourage employees to use the last 20- to 25-minutes of their meal break to nap.
• Restructure work schedules to reduce overtime work.
• Institute flexible work schedules that make time for more sleep at home or for naps during the workday.

Additional thoughts about naps:

• Nap breaks could replace the coffee breaks, smoking breaks, socializing breaks, or other breaks from work. Research at Cornell University conducted by James Mass (who coined the term “power nap”) showed that 38 percent of all U.S. employees napped at work (at their desks/cubicles, in rest rooms, or in their vehicles) whether employers permitted napping or not.
• A "natural nap period" is in mid-afternoon when a person's alertness drops.
• Avoid drinking caffeinated beverages before taking a nap, to prevent both the stimulant and diuretic effects, which may prevent falling asleep or prematurely interrupt a nap.
• Napping may provide general health benefits. One 6-year study showed that adults who napped about 30 minutes at least three times a week, had a 37% lower incidence of heart problems, including fatal heart attacks, compared to adults who did not nap. (None of the participants, nappers or non-nappers, had any history of heart disease, stroke, or cancer prior to the study.)

Did reading this make you tired? If so, you now know what to do!