The national sleep debt |
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By: Bishops Beds Posted: 2010-09-02 04:30:34 |
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Never mind the economy – Britain is facing a sleep crisis! The average Brit gets just over six hours’ sleep each night. That’s well below the recommended level of eight, and is threatening to take its toll on the workforce.According to research by the hotel chain Travelodge, more than half of us blame lack of sleep for poor concentration at work. And there are some unusual coping strategies around – while 16 per cent will catch a quick nap at their desk, one in ten admits to snoozing in the loo.
Civil servants are losing out the most, sleeping for just five hours and 53 minutes on average per night. Following closely behind them are bankers, factory workers, doctors, teachers, estate agents, recruitment consultants, accountants and taxi drivers.This is bad news for employers. You don’t need to be a sleep expert to know that sleep loss can severely damage our ability to focus at work, making us more likely to forget appointments or mislay vital pieces of paper. It can damage working relationships too – tired employees can be easily demoralised and quickly irritated. Of course, some enviable people can function perfectly well on less sleep, enabling them to squeeze more out of their extra-long days than the rest of us. This appears to be particularly true for those in positions of power - Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton and Napoleon each snatched just six hours a night. It’s debatable whether this rare gift can be achieved through practice. Last year a team of scientists from California claimed to have identified a gene for needing less sleep. Two members of the same family, a mother and daughter, would go to sleep with everyone else at 10pm, but woke up around 4 – without feeling any worse for it.One solution could be the ‘power nap’. According to Saga, taking a short nap during the day can have great health benefits, and one sleep author, Dr. James Maas, claims that napping for 20 minutes in the afternoon gives more rest than sleeping in for 20 minutes in the morning. Make sure your bed isn’t holding you back during the day. Research has suggested that simply swapping your old bed for a new one could give you an average of 42 minutes extra sleep – which is a good start! Take a look at what’s available at Bishops Beds. |
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