Workplace Fitness: Your job is your sleep's worst enemy

Normal logic says that the more you work the more you'll sleep, given there's enough time in the day. It's a law of physics or something, right? New studies say no, that's not how it works at all. The more people work the less they sleep, on average. That seems totally backwards!

Recent research took a look at how much people sleep as compared to their lifestyles, and found that the #1 culprit for eating into sleep time was work. Those who got less than 4 1/2 hours of sleep a night (every night? How can they function?) generally worked about 93 minutes longer on weekdays and 118 extra minutes on the weekend. On the flip side the people who slept more than 11 hours (whoa) on average worked 143 minutes less on weekdays and 71 minutes less on weekends. TV time was also higher for the long sleepers, as compared to socializing and housework which were higher for the sleep-deprived group. And age seemed to have something to do with it too, as the age group 45-54 was the most likely to be working the most and sleeping the least.

What's a little scary is that this was not a small study. It involved over 50,000 participants that were surveyed three different times over three years. Experts say this is not a good trend (obviously!) and represents that people are more and more commonly setting themselves up for such lifestyles that actually become unhealthy. People are "burning the candle at both ends," so to speak. Does that describe you?

Obviously this problem is bigger than any one person changing their habits (although that would certainly help that one person), and what really needs to happen is for employers and industry to come to a global realization of both how important sleep is and how workplace demands and culture are causing it to suffer. Experts say that soon the government and medical professionals will have to start advocating sleep as right up there with diet and exercise on the priority list of healthy living.

In the meantime, do what you can for yourself to make sure you get both enough sleep and good quality sleep. The single best way to get started is to make sleep a priority -- don't let work, social time, TV, or even your commute (came in 2nd place as sleep's worst enemy) cut into your precious shut-eye. The phrase "I need my beauty sleep" really rings true for everybody!