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3 Tweets Oct 13, 2023
USA loses $400 billion per year because Americans don't sleep
World economy is in jeopardy because of SLEEP DEPRIVATION
The shocking part? India is on its way to beat Japan to become the most sleep deprived country!
Here's how less than 6h of sleep is harming your nation too:
Today we have glorified hustle culture so much that sleep often takes a backseat.
But it is time to wake up to some facts —
Sleep deprivation isn’t just affecting your health but also sabotaging the global economy.
The US alone loses $400 billion annually due to sleep deprivation.
Canada, Germany, Japan and the U.K. lose $269 billion a year from their sleep-deprived citizenry.
And the cost of sleep disorders in Australia equals 1% of its GDP.
So why is this happening?
Why are countries losing money just because people aren’t sleeping a few extra hours?
1️⃣ Lost working days
The old saying, “time is money” is more relevant here than ever. Work time lost due to lack of sleep is literal money being wasted.
People who sleep less than 6 hours a day have a 2.4% higher productivity loss than employees who sleep for the recommended 7-9 hours.
So theoretically this means that a sleep deprived employee loses around 6 working days per year more than an employee who gets sufficient sleep.
And in reality,
- US loses 1.2 million working days
- Japan loses 600,000 working days
- UK and Germany lose over 200,000 working days
- Canada loses 80,000 working days per year.
2️⃣ Less productive employees
Lack of sleep results in a lower work rate, slower completion of basic tasks, and reduced creative problem solving for employees.
Also, the biggest mistakes by the decision makers are made when they are tired due to lack of sleep.
If the people who slept less than 6 hours a day simply up their game a little bit by sleeping more, that would save about 200 billion dollars a year in lost productivity.
3️⃣ Healthcare
Lost sleep not only affects the performance of employees at work but also raises healthcare costs for employers.
Sleep deprivation is one of the major reasons behind diseases like —
diabetes, heart attack and cancer, among young and middle-aged people who make up the entire workforce.
Lack of sleep disrupts the interplay of two hormones — leptin and ghrelin.
When you are eating, leptin is the chemical that tells the brain when you are full, while ghrelin urges the brain to keep eating.
In a sleep-deprived person, the leptin levels are low, and ghrelin levels are high.
This makes you eat more than necessary and puts you at a higher risk for obesity and a lot of other diseases.
Often times employees end up shelling out a good deal of their own money to fight insomnia, sleep-related disorders and diseases that are the result of sleep deprivation.
4️⃣ Loss of human lives
Drowsy driving can be a bigger issue than drunk driving.
A large number of road accidents take place around 3am or 4am
— which is when a person is likely to be extremely sleepy.
Also, the risk of death is increased by 13% for the people who sleep less than 6 hours a night compared to those who sleep somewhere between 7-9.
5️⃣ Wastage of power and resources
Many employees try to compensate for their slower work rate due to lost sleep by staying in the office late.
This creates an endless cycle and can require employers to leave amenities on past hours, costing companies hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Companies are now realising the importance of a well rested employee and that’s why they are now even paying people to sleep.
One Japanese company, Crazy INC, is fighting the problem by paying their employees with cafeteria points to get at least 6 hours of sleep each night, five days a week. This is worth $540 a year.
Aetna is another company that is paying its employees to get sufficient rest. They are willing to pay their workers up to $500 a year to get enough sleep.
But the hustle culture is not the only reason for sleep deprivation, some countries have sleep deprivation rooted in their history and culture.
Japan is a country that highly values their work. It’s not just a job for them, it defines them.
Since they work long hours, they are known to sleep round the clock. They have designated sleeping areas, and sleep pods in the offices.
But it's not as comfortable as an actual bed but when they are tired, they are ready to pass out on anything.
Japanese workers take a quick nap as a necessary part of everyday life because let’s face it,
they are sleep deprived even after their night rituals for a good night's sleep.
For Japan, their cultural norms and work ethics are the reason for their lack of sleep which is very different from the other sleep deprived countries.
South Korea is a country that’s addicted to sleeping pills and their reason lies in their history.
In just a few decades, the country has gone from being one of the poorest countries on earth to one of the world's most technologically advanced countries.
It also wields considerable soft power, with its influence on pop culture.
Nations with a similar trajectory, like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, could tap into their natural resources, but Korea has no such hidden wealth.
It transformed itself through the sheer dedication of its people who are driven by collective nationalism, pushing them to work harder and faster.
Now, its people are overworked, stressed out, and sleep deprived.
This problem has caught up to India as well, as 93% of Indians sleep less than 8 hours a day. And there are many reasons for it —
👉People who live in poor urban areas don’t get 8 hours of sleep even when they stay in bed for 8 hours because of heat and noise.
👉A lot of IT sector employees work at night to coordinate with the time zone of other countries which messes up their sleep schedule.
👉Sometimes employees are expected to work 12-14 hours a day even when the timesheet is for 8 hours.
👉Employers expect the body, soul, and mind of the employee to be available 24/7. Because of this, people are unable to unwind properly.
India nurtures some of the most brilliant minds, but these minds might not be able to reach their full potential if they are exposed to sleep deprivation from an early age.
It's important for us to understand this and conquer it at this stage so that we don’t keep losing money and brilliant minds.
For a really long time, we have been told that the more you work, the more you earn. But it won’t work in the long run if it’s at the expense of restful sleep.
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