We need to bring sleep into the wellbeing conversation

Sleeping is an innate part of being a human. It’s as in-built into our biology as breathing or digesting food. The decisions we make impact our physiological health in every way. If we smoke cigarettes, that might diminish the quality of our breathing, or if we eat ultra-processed foods every day that may impact the ability of our body to digest effectively.

We know that the decisions we make impact our overall health. Yet, there is little emphasis in the workplace within the wellbeing discourse about the importance of making good decisions conducive to good quality sleep, despite sleep being as, if not more important, than diet and exercise when looking at life longevity and health quality.

The impact of poor sleep on work

In a workplace survey carried out by Nuffield Health, 74% of adults reported bad sleep quality and 1 in 10 people reported only getting between 2-4 hours of sleep per night.

The link between work and sleep is symbiotic. For example, a stressful period at work impacts the quality of your sleep, whilst poor sleep influences your abilities at work. They are inextricably linked. And yet, the discourse around wellbeing is focused heavily on what you can control at work, as opposed to health factors outside of work. Even though this makes logical sense, the significance of sleep as a key health pillar makes it that much more important to discuss in the workplace.