![]() ![]() ![]() Of all the problems reported by employees in the year to March 2021 via YBS’s mental health platform, 40% related to “feeling constantly tired”, Elsworth says.įor front-line staff in call centres and branches, the “emotional impact of having difficult conversations” – particularly with newly unemployed customers who were unable to pay their mortgages – was considerable. While she believes that asking people direct questions about their sleep patterns “would be seen as intrusive” by some employees, “business leaders should foster conversations about physical and mental health in a way that encourages openness and debate, particularly now that poor sleep has become so common”. “But, as the narrative has changed in the Covid crisis, we have redoubled our efforts to combat the anxiety levels that, colleagues say, are making themselves felt as soon as they try to sleep.” “We’ve been marking important awareness events such as World Sleep Day for some years now,” says Michelle Elsworth, who leads YBS’s wellbeing activities. The irony of an organisation advocating the use of digital tech in the boudoir – a no-no among sleep scientists – is not lost on Hill.Īt Yorkshire Building Society (YBS), too, the effects that poor sleep can have on performance, motivation and overall health are firmly on the HR team’s radar. #SHINEOFF SERIAL NUMBER FREE#In common with other employers, Anglian Water offers free access to a mobile app containing sleep tools and tips. They can then be directed towards a range of private healthcare services, including cognitive behavioural therapy sessions and consultations with a 24-hour virtual GP. To break the stigma surrounding insomnia, they are encouraged to have “good conversations with their line managers” about trigger points at work or at home. “It isn’t surprising that anxiety, burnout and even post-traumatic stress disorder have followed in its wake, all of which have a big bearing on the quantity and quality of people’s sleep.” Sleep talk as therapyĪnglian Water has 5,000 employees, half of whom work remotely. “We felt from the start that coronavirus would cause a mental, as well as physical, pandemic,” says Jonathan Hill, head of occupational health at Anglian Water. It’s quite another to discern the warning signs when your interactions are restricted to the occasional video call. Being alert to the effects of a colleague’s sleep problems – lack of focus, irritability, low mood – is one thing if you sit opposite them every day. People who have chronic insomnia – defined as trouble falling or staying asleep at least three nights a week for three months or longer – are more vulnerable than average to obesity, depression and heart disease. With hybrid working becoming the rule rather than the exception in many industries, this total is only likely to increase.īusiness leaders should foster conversations about physical and mental health in a way that encourages openness and debate, particularly now that poor sleep has become so common Sleep deprivation already costs the UK economy upwards of £40bn a year in lost productivity. ![]() For some people, it can be an intensely personal matter that relatively few managers want to broach. Talking to staff about how much sleep they’re getting is one of the last organisational taboos. #SHINEOFF SERIAL NUMBER PROFESSIONAL#While the enthusiasts once hailed commute-free remote working as the perfect opportunity to relearn good sleep hygiene, it’s now clear that the lack of face-to-face contact and the blurring of boundaries between people’s professional and domestic lives can be unhealthy, particularly for those who work mostly from their beds. Official advice from the World Sleep Society to “reserve the bed for sleep and sex” may sound like common sense, but the rulebook has been rewritten for those who’ve been obliged to convert their bedrooms into workplaces during the Covid crisis.įrom the comical video calls in pyjamas that characterised the early days of the pandemic to the practice of ‘bedmin’ – catching up on paperwork in the small hours – the combined bedroom/office is an unwelcome reality for millions. ![]()
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