Sleeping for productivity

Dealing with cases of chronic insomnia would save the UK economy £34 billion a year, according to a study carried out by RAND Europe for Swiss pharmaceutical business Idorsia.

Research has shown that 80% of people suffering from insomnia — including lying awake at night, waking up several times at night and finding it difficult to get to sleep — reported that insomnia had impacted on their performance at work, including their concentration and ability to deal with stress. Employees said they would be willing to trade up to 14% of their annual household income for a regular good night’s sleep.

Wide-awake and unproductive

Calculations from the study point to insomnia leading to 11 to 18 days’ absence per staff member; 39 to 45 days of working while ‘sick’; and 44 to 54 days to lost productivity — meaning 1.31% lost productivity for the UK overall.

Marco Hafner, RAND Europe Research Advisor said: “Our findings point to the need for more timely diagnosis and management of insomnia to improve outcomes for patients and deliver better economic outcomes for the UK. This could include incorporating insomnia screening within routine clinic visits and enabling access to evidence-based, affordable, and cost-effective treatments for chronic insomnia.”

Culture alarm

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “Sleep is fundamental to wellbeing — and to psychological health in particular, the times when the mind works on restoring its balance. Disturbed sleep is typically one symptom of stress and anxiety, of an uneasy mind, and is a consequence of a complex bundle of causes.

“To provide genuine support for employees around healthy sleeping, organisations need to be thinking about the bigger picture: the workplace culture and working routines and how they might be having an impact on states of mind. Issues like feelings of uncertainty and a lack of control around workloads and meeting targets.

“In this context, EAPs are of particular value in terms of helping people better understand and deal with underlying issues at home and work, take back more control and feel able to switch off when they need to.”

Promoting EAPs during National Stress Awareness Month

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 12.5 million working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2016/17. During the same period, more than 500,000 workers stated that they were suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety. GPs also report that symptoms of stress are on the increase in the UK, with the majority of GPs (85%) reporting a rise in the number of patients with symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression in the last five years according to a survey by Royal London.

While the majority of work-related stress is attributed to workload, around 1 in 7 people say it is due to lack of support. Yet we know that Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) are the most popular wellbeing initiative provided by employers in the UK. While awareness is growing slowly, a gap still exists between awareness and the services already being provided by organisations to support mental health issues. “The issue here is that while some employees are aware their organisation has an EAP, they don’t necessarily know what it means and how it can help,” says Neil Mountford, chair of the UK Employee Assistance Professionals Association.

“Hosting regular EAP awareness and mental health awareness sessions can help give employees a better understanding of mental health , as well as an awareness of the services and support available to them. Improving knowledge of how EAPs can help will also increase usage of the service. If there are concerns around confidentiality of the EAP, it is vital to communicate that any discussions are private and confidential and will not be shared with their employer. It also helps if managers have a better understanding of the EAP and other support services available so that they can talk to employees about these.

“In order for an EAP to deliver significant benefit and value, employers need to work with their providers to raise awareness and provide education for employees. Organisations that do this will see the long term benefits of a successful EAP and the positive impact on employee wellbeing and organisation through improved productivity and fewer days lost to mental ill health. Line manager education and coaching on how best to manage mental health issues is also a key part of the equation and while EAPs have the capability, expertise and capacity to do this, this is less well known and utilised by employers.

“If take-up of your EAP is low, consider creating events or communications to tie in with key events on the wellbeing calendar and help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health. Ultimately, it is in the interest of all EAP providers to raise awareness of the issue of mental health at work and the role we can play in eradicating the problem and April’s National Stress Awareness Month could be the perfect place to start.”