BETTER SLEEP, BETTER GDP
BY SRUSHTI PUNGHERA / JUNE 26, 2021
A simple adjustment in lifestyle may have a big impact, and it all starts with getting enough sleep.
T
he allocation of time between work, chores, leisure and rest has been a central question in economic literature. The rapid evolution into a 24 hour society challenges individuals’ ability to conciliate work schedules and biological needs. When left on its own, our bodies’ internal clocks naturally respond to nature, however, due to the constantly changing demands of society, there is simultaneous readjustment of our schedules. Epidemiological research suggests that social and biological time are increasingly drifting apart, resulting in ‘Social Jet lag’.
Social jet lag is a form of circadian desynchronisation arising due to discrepancies between the biological rhythm and the social clock, primarily caused by improper routines. Till Roenneberg, professor of chronobiology at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, coined the term, which refers to lethargy, poor sleeping patterns, and tiredness caused by a misalignment of one's work and leisure schedule with their circadian cycle. Social Jet lag may begin with the same symptoms as a typical jet lag, such as lack of sleep, weariness, and mood swings, but it increases with time and can lead to chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, strokes, an increased dependency on alcohol and heavier smoking.
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Roennenerg blames social jet lag for “practically everything that is bad in our bodies,” and rightfully so. It has an impact not only on the quantity but also on the quality of sleep. According to a research conducted on undergraduates, individuals with irregular sleep patterns have unpleasant and fragmented sleep compared to students with regular schedules, even when they have had the same quantity of sleep. “It is estimated that two-thirds of us experience at least one hour of social jet lag a week, and a third experience two hours or more – equivalent to flying from London to Tel Aviv and back each week,” according to The Guardian.
There are numerous factors that contribute to this jetlag. The most prominent is the difference in light exposure. Society’s disregard of evolutionary cues of a day's beginning and end has thus manifested itself into a multitude of health related issues. Many jobs require people to wake up before the sun rises and go to bed way past sunset, causing a misalignment in nature's clock and the timings of social obligation. This circadian misalignment increases healthcare costs by at least 2.35 billion USD annually. It's important to note that a good night's sleep is a luxury that most people in the labour force cannot afford. Employees stay up late due to deadline stress, employment insecurity as well as extra shifts. Tendencies to overwork can also be attributed to the rapidly growing “hustle culture” which glorifies and equates excessive work hours with success.
Credit: by Dion MBD on behance
via Pinterest
Estimates suggest that in many countries, individuals are sleeping as much as two hours less per night than did their ancestors one hundred years ago.
Estimates suggest that in many countries, individuals are sleeping as much as two hours less per night than did their ancestors one hundred years ago and that the “unnatural” timing of sleep may be the “most prevalent high-risk behavior in modern society”.
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Individual health is a major factor of economic performance and productivity. Given that social jet lag has a detrimental impact on health, many behavioural economists have linked poor sleep to lower productivity, which in turn hampers a region's economic performance. In a study conducted by the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, workers were found to have “significantly lower productivity, performance, and safety outcomes" among those who slept less and an estimated 1,967 USD loss in productivity per worker due to poor sleep. Efficiency Wage Theory explains this relationship between wages and productivity. Increase in productivity across industries enables an increase in wages, thus giving workers an incentive to work harder. However, a pioneering study by Biddle and Hamermesh (1990) shows that higher wages raise the opportunity cost of sleep time, leading individuals to decrease their sleep. This result demonstrates that causal relationships between sleep and wages may run in both directions. Results of a study done by Gibson and Shrader (2015) show that in the short run, one hour increase in average weekly sleep increases worker wages by 1.5% whereas, in the long run, one hour increase in weekly average sleep increases average wage by 4.9%. Thus, these statistics suggest that sleep has a powerful impact on labor market outcomes and should be considered an integral part of a worker’s routine in order to maximise individual and subsequently, industry productivity.
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In addition to the associated health concerns, several studies have found a link between social jet lag and a country's gross domestic product. Financial losses due to social jet lag appear improbable at first glance; yet, similar findings have been obtained all over the world. The negative effects of social jet lag affects productivity by increasing absenteeism and rendering people unfit for work.Data shows that inadequate sleep costs the United States an estimated 1.2 million working days, 600,000 days to Japan, and over 200,000 to the UK and Germany. Due to this, every year, the United States suffers a loss of up to 411 billion USD, amounting up to over 2.92% of its overall economy. Similarly, Japan loses 138 billion USD, Germany loses 60 billion USD, and the United Kingdom loses a loss of 50 billion USD every year.
Over the years, industries have generally neglected the trade-off between the benefits of synchronising economic and social activity and the negative impacts of circadian rhythm disturbances on health and productivity. The delay in a schedule of an employed individual may be as little as 19 minutes, however, the disruption of circadian rhythms for a long period of time will have negative effects.
With the pandemic shifting work to home, social jet lag has only gotten worse. It's become harder for individuals to divorce working hours from leisure time, the former almost always taking up the latter. This invasion is inevitable in the adjustment period of the fusing of office spaces with living spaces, but is something that is necessary to overcome. The stress due to overexertion in conjunction with the anxiety around the pandemic only makes getting a good night's sleep harder. With one year into the new normal, one can only hope that individuals are realising the importance of respecting their body and its cycles. It’s high time corporations look after their employees by ensuring that measures are put in place that prioritise the well being of those who are facing issues of this magnitude and realise that disregard of an employee’s health is not only detrimental to their well being but also furthers unproductivity.
Keywords
Social Jet lag, GDP, Pandemic, Circadian Cycle, Insomnia, Timezones, Social clock, Lifestyle, Work from home
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References
An employers' guide to promoting healthy employee sleep and mental health. Aetna International. (2021).
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The Costs of Insufficient Sleep. RAND Corporation. (2021). https://www.rand.org/randeurope/research/projects/the-value-of-the-sleep-economy.html.
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McCarthy, N. (2016, December 6). The Enormous Cost of Sleep Deprivation. IndustryWeek. https://www.industryweek.com/operations/safety/article/21991136/the-enormous-cost-of-sleep-deprivation.
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Mullainathan, S. (2014, February 1). Get Some Sleep, and Wake Up the G.D.P. The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/business/get-some-sleep-and-wake-up-the-gdp.html.
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Giuntella, O., & Mazzonna, F. (2017). Sunset Time and the Economic Effects of Social Jetlag: Evidence from US Time Zone Borders. Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, 1–83.
https://www.econ.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/WP%2017-009.upload.pdf.
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Geddes, L. (2019, January 21). Social jetlag – are late nights and chaotic sleep patterns making you ill? The Guardian.
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Gibson, M., & Shrader, J. (2015). Time Use and Productivity: The Wage Returns to Sleep. Department of Economics, Williams College, 1–74.
https://web.williams.edu/Economics/wp/GibsonShrader_Sleep.pdf.
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Wu, K. J. (2018, November 15). Scientists Track "Social Jet Lag" Sleeping Habits With Twitter Data. Public Broadcasting Service.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/track-social-jet-lag-twitter/.
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