Sleep deprivation affecting Boston jobs?

Posted on March 28, 2016

A new Careerbuilder survey posits that sleep deprivation may be affecting Boston jobs.

According to the survey, over half of workers (58 percent) feel they don’t get enough sleep, and 61 percent say lack of sleep has a negative impact on their work.

More than 3,200 workers across industries in the private sector participated in the nationwide survey, conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder from November 4 and December 1, 2015.

While eight hours may be the doctor-recommended amount of sleep time each night, only 16 percent of workers say they actually reach this goal. The majority of workers (63 percent) log an average of six to seven hours of sleep each night during the workweek, while 1 in 5 (21 percent) average five hours or less.

For some workers, hitting the snooze button in attempt to doze a little bit longer just doesn’t cut it. One in five workers (21 percent) has called in sick for the purpose of getting extra sleep.

Sleep-deprivation doesn’t just hurt workers – it hurts business, too. Three in five workers (61 percent) say lack of sleep has had an impact on their work in some way, including the following:

• It makes the day go by slower: 30 percent
• It makes me less motivated: 27 percent
• It makes me less productive: 24 percent
• It affects my memory: 17 percent
• It makes me crabby with co-workers: 13 percent
• It takes me longer to complete tasks: 13 percent
• It makes me make mistakes: 13 percent