Corporations are enhancing mental health benefits and physical safety measures in the hopes that workers will return to corporate offices and regain a sense of normalcy.
The focus on mental health is a positive development. In tandem with this more holistic approach to health, employers have an opportunity to allocate greater resources to another often-overlooked health catalyst: sleep.
An estimated 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders, which are correlated with a host of health issues, such as dementia, moodiness or drowsy driving.
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Sleep disorders also contribute to workforce health and productivity and can be a key factor in whether employees are sharp, creative and able to perform or exhausted, sick and absent. As productivity is the lifeblood of business success, sleep is subsequently tied to an organization’s bottom line.
Yet sleep is also woefully underrated in its significance.
Just one-quarter of employers offer apps to promote sleep and relaxation, according to a 2019 employee benefits survey. The survey made no mention of comprehensive sleep solutions, which go beyond apps to address the deeper factors influencing sleep disorders.
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As it turns out, there’s a lot of solid evidence that addressing sleep health yields positive results.
In one study, employees who were simply offered a flexible work arrangement increased their sleep by approximately one hour per week, compared with the control group. This is a small difference, but a meaningful one, considering that most U.S. adults function best with a regular routine of six to seven hours of sleep per night.
Southern Company, an Atlanta-based electric utility company, leveraged a more comprehensive initiative — and saw even more dramatic benefits. In 2018, 4,000 of the organization’s 30,000-strong workforce underwent screening for sleep apnea, a serious sleep disorder characterized by breathing that repeatedly stops and starts. The screening, part of an organization-wide sleep initiative, led to 1,500 employees being treated for the disorders.
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While Southern Company didn’t publish clinical outcomes data, the organization estimated this screening program saved $1.2 million in one calendar year by reducing the need for medical services for conditions such as heart disease, which is complicated by sleep apnea.
Wearable sleep trackers are more popular than ever, with the growth of smartwatches and other devices. Employers that want to offer solutions should think beyond apps, or sleep trackers. While these technologies can be helpful in highlighting potential issues, they’re not comprehensive enough to detect major sleep disorders, like narcolepsy or sleep apnea.
Apps don’t come with insights on what a consumer should do next, should they exhibit worrisome sleep patterns. Also, most apps don’t typically connect users with specialists who can discuss and recommend appropriate lifestyle modifications.
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While the polysomnography, or sleep study in a remote sleep center, is more comprehensive and generates more granular results, such studies aren’t easily accessible.
A better solution is to combine the convenience of wearables, for screening purposes, with data analysis, diagnosis and intervention to gauge sleep health, engage workers and ultimately help employers foster a workforce culture that’s well rested and productive.
The partnership between Somnology and the Veterans Administration, for example, offers some insight into how such an approach would work. In 2018, over 1,000 U.S. veterans, ages 20 to 89, were given wearable sleep-assessment gear that enabled them to self-monitor their sleep patterns.
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While they slept, tiny monitors processed droves of data, and transmitted it to sleep specialists who could analyze data and make recommendations for follow-up care. Individuals with significant evidence of sleep problems were connected to sleep specialists all across the country, via telehealth, so they could begin consultations and treatment.
For individuals who needed frequent consultations the ongoing virtual appointments weren’t just one-off discussions, followed by a recommendation for a C-Pap device. They were personalized encounters, between specialists who sought to uncover the true nature of ongoing sleep issues, as well as the correlation between poor sleep and other medical conditions.
To date, this approach has shortened the time to address this health malady while saving the VA an estimated 50% in annual sleep-diagnosis costs.
With so many uncertainties in 2021, time is of the essence in adopting a comprehensive sleep approach that can help all workers thrive — not just workers in a particular industry. Mental health has never been more important on the scale of benefits and quality sleep is the lifeblood of improving mental health outcomes and performance.
