Why cutting back on sleep could kill you

balance the highest and had 25 per cent more energy than their snoozy counterparts.

Suzanne Deeming, cofounder of WorkScore, says it’s widely accepted that the average person needs somewhere between seven and nine hours sleep each night for overall physical and mental wellbeing.

However, not getting enough sleep is a big contributor to increased stress at work.

“Employees who sleep less than seven hours per night are 23 per cent more stressed, while those who sleep less than five hours per night rate work 17 per cent more stressful,” she says.

But more sleep doesn’t always mean better wellbeing and performance. For the 1 per cent of people who say they sleep 10 hours or more a night, they reported having 50 per cent less energy than those who sleep seven to nine hours a night.

And it’s more than just a matter of a lethargic workforce — lack of sleep can be a killer.

According to a report by the Sleep Health Foundation, there are an estimated 7.4 million Australian adults who do not regularly get the sleep they need, and in 2016-17 that was estimated to have resulted in more than 3000 deaths.

“It is expected that more than one Australian will die every day (394 over the year) from falling asleep at the wheel of a vehicle or from industrial accidents due to lack of sleep,” says the report.

The chair of the Sleep Health Foundation, Professor Dorothy Bruck, says the financial impact of such an epidemic of inadequate sleep runs into the billions of dollars.

“The numbers are big, the personal and national costs are big and their consequences should not be ignored,” she says in the report.

Deloitte Access Economics crunched the numbers and found the total cost of inadequate sleep in Australia was estimated to be $66.3 billion in 2016-17. This was made up of $26.2 billion in financial costs and $40.1 billion in the loss of wellbeing.

“Employers can help improve what happens after hours by promoting the right for employees to disconnect by reducing or even banning work communication after business hours,” says WorkScore’s Suzanne Deeming.

“They should also encourage employees to take regular breaks during the work day and to make time for a lunch break.”

It was back in 1735 when American founding father Benjamin Franklin reportedly coined the phrase “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise” in his Poor Richard’s Almanack.

Seems Mr Franklin was spot on.