Let staff have a lie-in to keep them happy

Four out of five people are working against their individual body clock, making for an unhappy and unhealthy workforce, research suggests.

Scientists from the Institute of Medical Psychology at Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich conducted a study in a German steel factory and found that reorganising the day to allow staff to work in accordance to their ‘chronotype’ or body clock, makes them happier and healthier.

The researchers assessed the chronotypes of 114 factory workers, examining their sleeping patterns and calculating their average sleep deficit with each worker put into an early, late, or intermediate group, and assigned a shift pattern to suit their body clock, monitoring their sleep, stress levels, happiness and general wellbeing over a period of five months.