Businesswoman leading a meeting in a bright office, representing how employers can foster teamwork and support employee well-being.


How Employers Can Support Sleep Hygiene 

 Oct 22, 2024 | 4 Min Read

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Staff health and wellbeing is not just beneficial to the workers themselves; it also benefits their employers.  

A healthier, well-rested colleague is more productive, more attentive to health and safety, and is ultimately happier in the workplace.  

Employers can play their part too, encouraging healthy sleeping habits in both their policies and their communications.  

Here is how employers can support better sleep hygiene among workers. 

Smiling woman stretching in bed after waking up, represents the importance of good sleep and a comfortable, restful environment.

The importance of sleep, and the right steps to achieve it, are often overlooked. One recent survey found that “35 percent of Europeans have been struggling to get a full night’s rest.”  And the same survey found that 46% of those who reported struggles with sleep also experience feelings of burnout.  

Causes for these sleep disorders are varied, and include stress, anxiety and worry about money. Separate from the psychological causes, bad habits can impact on sleep. For example, an American study found that Gen Zers were most frequently browsing social media before sleep and admitted to being kept awake by their screen by up to 3.09 nights per week.  

You can educate employees on how to improve their sleep hygiene the following ways:  

  •  Providing information via literature and internally distributed documents  
  •  Inviting a sleep expert to hold a seminar or webinar on the subject  
  •  Establishing communications channels (such as a group chat) where colleagues can share advice and resources for better sleep hygiene 

We all work to different schedules, even if we’re in the same workplace. For instance, parents will have different lifestyles and sleep schedules from those without kids. Elsewhere, a colleague might be attending night school, or have hobbies, responsibilities or needs that require some flexibility in when they work (and when they sleep).  

Additionally, we all have sleep schedules that suit our own needs. Some of us are “night owls”, who like to stay up late and get up late, while “early birds” naturally wake up earlier.  

So, it doesn’t make sense to enforce the same start and finish times to this broad range of people and lifestyles.  

Flexible hours allow staff to start and finish at times that suit them. And a compromise can be reached between employers and staff. It’s not uncommon for a business to have “core” office hours (10am to 4pm, for example), which means that employees must work those hours during the day, but can start early or finish late. Productivity has never been easier to track, so employees don’t have to be present at specific times for management to know whether they’re doing a good job.  

A UK survey found that, “13.1% of workers use flexi−time with a relatively even spread between age groups and genders. Flexi-time working has been increasing for much of the last decade and despite a blip during the pandemic, continues to grow.” 

This should, ideally, also expand to working from home, as employees sometimes need an early start to make it to their workplace. Remote-working, even on a hybrid basis, greatly encourages healthy sleep habits

Providing wellness and sleep-related resources encourages good habits for staff. It also shows employees that you’re committed to helping them lead a healthy lifestyle.  

Depending on budget, an employer might provide some (or all) of the following resources to encourage wellness and rest:  

  • A free subscription to a medication app  
  • Access to counselling 
  • Wellness days as paid time off  
  • A healthy working environment with access to natural light  

Finally, it’s not enough to simply state that employees should look after their sleep hygiene, you must act on it too.  

What does this look like? Well, it means not sending communications at inappropriate times (emails on weekends or late at night, for example). It also means not working into the night or for too long before work begins, and not expecting them to do the same.  

If an employer wants his staff to lead a healthy lifestyle, whether it’s related to sleep, diet, exercise or mental health, they must lead by example.  

Investing in your employees’ sleep is empathetic, practical and worthwhile. For more insights, explore our posts on  Why an Employee Sleep Programme Might Boost Your Business Productivity and Creating the Optimal Sleep Environment.
Allianz Partners can help your business support employee wellbeing and productivity through better sleep practices. Explore our international group health insurance options to learn more about how we can assist your team in staying healthy and well-rested.