Introduction
In the busy and interconnected world of today, sleep is often a commodity not every person can afford. The importance of sleep as a resource and a human need can often be undervalued, especially with the raising needs of many workplaces and the social requirements each person bears. In this discussion then, it can be especially crucial to re-state the role of sleep as an agent of healthy lifestyle and good human performance. While many people understand the need of a human body to get rest, only a minor portion of them truly understands how a lack of rest can impact all aspects of their daily lives. In this work, the discussion regarding sleep will cover both the benefits and detriments of a healthy sleep, as well as some issues concerning people’s sleep patterns. Additionally, the text will relay how the current work culture and its constraints produce unhealthy individuals and limit their ability to live full lives. As a result of this work, more people will be informed in regards to the way their lives can be impacted by sleep, as well as possible ways to remedy the situation.
Thesis Statement
Quality of sleep impacts social, physical, and emotional aspects of life, and the present-day norms of work expectations systematically act as a tool that deteriorates people’s productivity. The 8-hour work week and constraints on many jobs impact sleep quality and the quality of life for their workers, decreasing the overall quality of life and the effectiveness of labor.
Healthy Sleep and its Duration
The need of human beings to get rest and sleep well is uncontended truth, supported both by common assertion and scientific fact. However, the definition of healthy itself, and the particular timeframe that is used can be subjective, depending on the person one asks. In this vein, a person might feel that getting 4 hours of sleep a night is perfectly sufficient for them, while another might find 7 working for them better. Regardless of personal preference or habit, however, the quality and quantity of sleep can be scientifically measured. First, it must be established what constitutes good, healthy sleep, and how it is determined.
In terms of sleep duration, research has most often found that around 6 to 8 hours is sufficient for every individual, bringing them enough time to rest and having no negative impact on cognitive or social function. Alternatively, both longer and shorter sleep have been associated with significant detriments. The aforementioned 4-hour sleep, in particular, was noted by scholars to be “equivalent to aging 8 years” (Wild et al.). Measures of wellness and sleep pattern results have been taken from a large sample of participants all over the world, making this study both relevant to many and credible. In terms of rest, the quality of sleep has been noted to have been even more important than its duration, significantly affecting the way people act and perform tasks. A cross-sectional study done on Australian adults have found that poor sleep quality negatively impacts a person the most, regardless of sleep duration. For the study, poor sleep is defined broadly as the type of sleep that is often interrupted or accompanied by physical pain or discomfort. In particular, it was noted that bad sleep in combination will all types of sleep length “was associated with worse physical, emotional and social functioning” (Lallukka et al.). For the purposes of this discussion, these results mean that 6-8 hour uninterrupted, comfortable sleep is considered to be healthy, with all other deviations contributing to an overall decrease in sleep quality.
Effects of Sleep
Physical
The physical effects of the lack of sleep are among the most well-known in the general population, and are often made the central focus of the discussion in popular media discussions. Physical alterations to the appearance of a person, and the deterioration of their athletic performance can be noted as major side effects of poor sleep. Dark “bags” under a person’s eyes, their skin quality and functioning of their internal organs – all of these factors are brought upon by not having enough rest. In particular, people with insufficient or excessive amount of sleep can often find themselves more physically exhausted after the completion of basic activities or regular tasks.
For other populations, such as athletes in particular, the amount and quality of sleep can also make a large difference in physical performance. Research on rugby players has found that healthy sleep quantities correlated with better reaction times, skill execution, as well as personal ratings of physical wellness. Authors state, however, that the effects of sleep extension on physical activity are also contentious, and are currently shown to be varied depending on the person. Even if an “an athlete’s response to sleep extension appears to be highly variable”, as the work emphasises, it is still said that the lack of sleep can be dangerously detrimental to physical wellness (Swinbourne et al.). The research supports the assertion that a lack of healthy sleep impedes the way a person functions in their day to day life.
Since people live in a social environment, it is crucial that they are able to have adequate reaction times and a basic capacity for motor skills, especially in cases where their occupation requires it. Many individuals spend their time behind the steering wheel of a car, either for their work necessities or in transit. Driving is an activity that walks closely with danger, especially in populated cities with many distractions. Drivers, passengers and passerby’s need to have the capacity for alertness, and the reaction times to respond to danger. In many cases, traffic accidents happen when an individual cannot respond to an emerging situation in time, resulting in a car crash or other kind of accident. As the quantity and quality of sleep impacts a person’s reaction times, healthy sleep is a requirement to make sure that unfortunate accidents do not happen. This point is further bolstered in cases of public transportation, where a working individual may be responsible not only for themselves, but for the lives of others as well. An inability to sleep enough endangers the workings of society and lives of people.
Emotional
Similarly to the physical manifestations of poor sleep, the practice can affect a person’s emotional wellbeing and stability as well. An individuals emotions underpin many of their actions, thoughts and decisions in their daily life. Despite often considering them to be secondary to human functioning in a more formal setting, an individual’s emotional spectrum more often than not shapes the particular methods with which they interact with the world and others. An individual’s ability to handle stress, respond to external stimuli appropriately, or find emotional balance can all be influenced by their sleep schedule. This fact is particularly notable in a work environment, where many people have to operate on a shared goal or project for a prolonged amount of time. Poor sleep leads itself to irritability and stress, which can negatively impact the mood of a person and attitudes of those that have to interact with them. This means that the lack of sleep can in turn harm work communication and professional relationships, and present problems in many social settings. Research into the correlations between emotional human responses and sleep has found a mutually affective relationship, where a person’s emotions affect their ability to sleep, and the quality of sleep shapes their emotions. It is noted that a person’s “affective states”, in particular, share a “reciprocal relationship between subjective sleep variables” (Konjarski et al.). This means, overall, that the ability of a person to feel excited, happy, sad, fearful or in any other way is specifically impacted by the quality and quantity of their sleep. The consideration of this fact is crucial in professional and informal settings alike, as human communication forms the foundation of society.
Sleep and Working Hours
Early Working Hours are Detrimental To Productivity
Sleep has historically been considered something of an enemy to productivity in a professional setting. Ever since the industrial age, workplaces have been attempting to extract as much labor and workforce out of their employees as possible. This process was Accompanied and regulated by the establishment of work schedule, and the standard work week. While the particular way a 9 to 5 job operates now has changed with the introduction and development of modern tech, the time an average person often spends on the job has largely been similar. Even the existence of days off and holidays has been something workers had to actively advocate for, as the corporate organization attempted to extract as much productivity from the people as possible. However, there is a large and apparent problem with this approach, one that is yet to be fixed on a large scale. In particular, it should be said that the 8 hour work day is ineffective at extracting productivity from workers and is actively detrimental to their lives.
As noted by a variety of written research on the subject, an 8 hour workday rapidly drains both the cognitive and physical resources of a person, leaving them with only a small period of productivity over a long stretch of time. In practice, the majority of office-type jobs can be fulfilled with 6-hour or even 4-hour workdays, which are much more beneficial to human wellness. The current length of an average workday additionally has specific serious effects on the quality of sleep for most individuals. Longer work hours put significant stress on individuals, leading to more anxiety and exhaustion from their daily work (Rhéaume and Mullen). Additionally, many common jobs have irregular work schedulers or a shift-based structure, where individuals are put under an even higher degree of stress. Researchers of nurse work state that “Extended work hours and shift work are an occupational and safety hazard” for many, especially those working in the care industry (Rhéaume and Mullen). Quick changes that often accompany shift work additionally present people with even more stress, which comes from both working for a long time and having to work in unexpected conditions (Härmä et al.,). As noted by one of the previous section of the text, an emotional state of agitation, worry, exhaustion or anxiety can decrease a person’s quality and quantity of sleep. This means that a prolonged work day leaves many individuals too stressed to properly rest, while also requiring them to wake up early each day.
Other types of research have noted that the particular schedules and early hours of typical workdays can often be damaging to workplace productivity. In addition, the 8 hour work day leaves many people unable to tend to the daily necessities of their life in time, such as childcare, groceries or homemaking, which are increasingly becoming needed in today’s world. Overall, it should be said that the nature of the current work climate works against the wellbeing of people, their ability to perform tasks, and their capacity to function in the modern world setting.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it should be stated that the people of today are lacking in good, high quality sleep, as a result of many social and economic factors. The workplace environment present in many countries and societies around the world has developed to be antithetical to the notion of productivity and optimization. While jobs require many to wake up early and work for prolonged periods of time, they also leave individuals too exhausted to keep up with other necessities of daily life, while also not achieving their perceived notion of employee efficiency as imagined. People are being overworked, leading to them developing unhealthy or inadequate sleep schedules, which then lend themselves to worse cognitive, emotional and physical functioning. The inability of individuals to perform tasks on time is then attributed to a their personal failure, and not a systematic issue that impacts a major part of the workforce, leading to many people suffering in the process. The problem is then left unattended as workplaces keep setting unreasonable performance expectations on employees and demanding 8 or 12 hour workdays. A need to deviate from this structure becomes apparent if scientific basis of good sleep and workplace efficiency is considered, however. Both employees and their workers need to understand that good rest is the basis upon which other considerations should be built.
Works Cited
Härmä, Mikko, et al. “Association of Changes in Work Shifts and Shift Intensity with Change in Fatigue and Disturbed Sleep: A within-Subject Study.” Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, vol. 44, no. 4, [Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, Danish National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Norwegian National Institute of Occupational Health, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health], 2018, pp. 394–402, Web.
Konjarski, Monika, et al. “Reciprocal Relationships between Daily Sleep and Mood: A Systematic Review of Naturalistic Prospective Studies.” Sleep Medicine Reviews, vol. 42, 2018, pp. 47–58.
Lallukka, Tea, et al. “Association of Sleep Duration and Sleep Quality with the Physical, Social, and Emotional Functioning among Australian Adults.” Sleep Health, vol. 4, no. 2, 2018, pp. 194–200.
Rhéaume, Ann, and Jane Mullen. “The Impact of Long Work Hours and Shift Work on Cognitive Errors in Nurses.” Journal of Nursing Management, vol. 26, no. 1, 2017, pp. 26–32.
Swinbourne, Richard, et al. “The Effects of Sleep Extension on Sleep, Performance, Immunity and Physical Stress in Rugby Players.” Sports, vol. 6, no. 2, 2018, p. 42.
Wild, Conor J, et al. “Dissociable Effects of Self-Reported Daily Sleep Duration on High-Level Cognitive Abilities.” Sleep, vol. 41, no. 12, 2018.