SLEEP CHALLENGE IN THE WORKPLACE
It is well known that not getting enough sleep has some serious consequences. Without the proper amount of sleep the ability to interpret information is diminished, judgement is impacted, and mood is seriously affected.
Workplace wellness challenges can help promote healthy behavior changes, with the goal of sleep challenges helping people understand the importance of sleep and how best to maintain the habits to support quality sleep. That said, creating a workplace sleep challenge needs to be done with careful consideration, in order to avoid awkward privacy concerns.
-When tracking sleep, group people in teams and only track average team hours per night, that way individual sleep data is not recorded.
-Set a realistic goal of the team averaging 7-8 hours of sleep per night. And if the team’s average hours of sleep is less than the recommended amount of sleep, try increasing the goal by an hour incrementally each week until the team reaches 7-8 hours.
-Educate people on how to obtain good sleep and the correlation between more sleep and performance.
-Reward employees with fun sleep friendly gadgets including sleep trackers, smart sheets and smart pajamas!
-Behavior change takes time, so set up the challenge for a few months at the least.
There are many challenges along a wellness journey, but by giving employees a few extra tools to use along their path, including the ability to sleep better, businesses can provide a positive boost to all along the way.