Sleep Matters – Not only for your own health, but for society as a whole

According to a study in the US by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one in three American adults is not getting enough sleep on a regular basis.

Sleep deprivation is associated with various health risks such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, hypertension, diabetes as well as an increased risk of accidents.  On average, lack of sleep (under six hours /night) can result in an increase in mortality rate by up to 13%.

Not only does sleep deprivation affect individual health and wellbeing, but also has strong social and economic impact due to a reduction in productivity, absence from work and errors at work. The economic consequences of sleep deprivation was assessed in a detailed study by the RAND cooperation (a non-profit research organization).

The authors came to the conclusion that up to 680 billion USD is lost each year across the five OECD countries US, UK, Japan, Germany and Canada due to insufficient sleep.

Taking care of your sleep duration and quality is thus essential for your own health and wellbeing, as well as for society and the economy as a whole. Even small changes in sleep duration (e.g. seven hours /night rather than six hours /night) can have a significant impact.

For further details, please refer to the study: https://www.rand.org/randeurope/research/projects/the-value-of-the-sleep-economy.html