Chronic lack of sleep affects worker productivity, illness and economy

Whether we blame more competitiveness in a faster workplace, or electronic distractions, more people aren't getting enough sleep.

RAND Corp. researchers found that inadequate sleep causes more than $400 billion in economic losses each year and more than one million lost days of work each year.

It’s reported Japan, loses as much as $138 billion annually to sleeplessness among workers.

Kelsey Seybold pulmonary and sleep specialist Dr. Puneet Patni said the number of people not getting enough sleep keeps on increasing...especially with the ease of accessibility of electronic devices.

“Chronic sleep deprivation has been shown to increase your risk for health problems, like high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and be a negative factor for your immune system, which could make you more susceptible to getting infections and time off from work,” said Patni.

He added it causes problems for society because it impacts on-the-job worker productivity.

Patni said there's big economic cost to this country because of chronic sleep deprivation with “The consequences go from the spectrum of the individual person to all of society. It is a big problem that probably is going to keep getting worse until we take a serious look at it,” said Patni.

 He said a lack of sleep can cause accidents--like car wrecks, or on the job--like Three Mile Island nuclear incident and the Exxon Valdez oil spill.


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