One of the most influential causes of fatigue at your organization has nothing to do with shift-work and no one is immune to it. Sleep problems can affect 9 to 5’ers just as easily as your non-standard work hours employees. A Statistics Canada study found that sleep problems affect 43% of Canadian men and 55% of Canadian women between the ages of 18 to 64 (“sometimes/most of the time/all of the time”) [1]. This means that over 40% of your whole workforce may not be getting the quantity or quality of sleep they need on a daily basis. This inadequate sleep is one of the biggest causes of fatigue at your organization.
There are a few formal methods available to organizations to address sleep problems including medical fitness for duty assessments, sleep coaching, and using the services of sleep management firms. These methods are time consuming to set up and require funding from budgets that are already cash strapped.
One easy and efficient, informal method to address sleep problems is to help your employees help themselves. Many people with sleep problems feel their experiences are normal. “Everyone snores”, “It’s ok to take something to help you sleep every night”, and, “as we get older it is normal to feel tired all the time”, are some of the popular myths floating around. Experiences like these are not normal and can be signs of a sleep problem or perhaps even a medically recognized sleep disorder. Both of which should be addressed. There is help out there and no one needs to suffer needlessly from sleep problems.
A sleep problem screening tool like the one linked here https://fatiguemanagersnetwork.org?filr=NTk1NA== can help people understand if their sleep is problematic and direct them towards help. Providing a sleep problem screening tool is an ideal way for an organization to help their workforce without the need to collect sensitive medical information. All the organization has to do is supply the screening tool and point people to sleep clinics and practitioners for help. This method will help your workforce understand if their sleep is problematic, encourage them to seek help and get treated all for the low cost of a few pieces of paper.
Quiz Time!
If you use the informal sleep problem screening tool, you won’t be collecting information such as the prevalence of sleep problems and how many people seek help that would allow you to measure the success of this approach. What data is your organization already collecting that could help you gauge the success of this method?
Let’s get the discussion started….give your answer here: https://fatiguemanagersnetwork.org/discussion-board/