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5 reasons you need to add sleep to your wellness program

Is sleep the next frontier of workplace wellness? It sure seems likely. Lack of sleep is fast becoming a workplace epidemic, according to new research from staffing firm Accountemps, having a negative impact on both employees and employers. Here are five reasons why sleep needs to become a priority in your workplace.
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1. It’s a widespread problem.

If you think fatigue only affects a small part of your workforce, think again. A whopping 74% of U.S. workers say they work while tired, with nearly one-third (31%) saying they do so very often. Men (77%) are more prone to being tired in the workplace than women (71%), and younger workers — those 18-34 — are most often sleep-deprived, with 86% saying they work tired.
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2. Lack of sleep is making your employees more prone to mistakes.

Exhaustion is to blame for plenty of mistakes at work — like paying everyone twice or deleting a project that took 1,000 hours to put together. Those were just two mistakes mentioned by tired employees in the Accountemps survey of more than 1,000 professionals.
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3. It’s hurting your business.

In addition to making mistakes, employees cited lack of focus or being easily distracted (52%), procrastinating more (47%) and being grumpy (38%) among the consequences of fatigue.
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4. It’s leading to bigger problems.

What’s worse, if employers don’t take action, lack of sleep can lead to bigger problems in the workplace — such as burnout, turnover and a negative corporate culture, along with lost sales and productivity, explains Bill Driscoll, district president of Accountemps.
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5. Employees want help.

Employer support can help the growing epidemic. Driscoll suggests employers implement flexible work schedules and telecommuting options; encourage employees to take breaks; and bring in temporary professionals to ease workloads as possible solutions to the sleep problem.
Nap rooms are also a possible solution; they already are implemented by savvy tech firms including Google, Apple and AOL. It looks like employees would embrace them, too: 55% of workers said they would use a nap room if their employer offered one.
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