Shocking! What 16 minutes of sleep can do to your job

According to a survey, employees who slept 16 minutes less than usual experienced more cognitive issues at work the next day.

Compromising your sleep routine during the work-week greatly interferes with job performance, a recent study has suggested.

As part of the study, a team of researchers surveyed 130 healthy employees who work in the Information Technology sector and have at least one school-aged child.

Participants reported that when they slept 16 minutes less than usual and had worse quality sleep, they experienced more cognitive issues the next day.

That raised their stress levels, especially regarding issues related to work-life balance, resulting in them going to bed earlier and waking up earlier due to fatigue.

"These cyclical associations reflect that employees' sleep is vulnerable to daily cognitive stress and also a contributor to cognitively stressful experiences," said Soomi Lee, lead author of the study that was published in the journal Sleep Health.

"Findings from this study provide empirical evidence for why workplaces need to make more efforts to promote their employees' sleep. Good sleepers may be better performers at work due to greater ability to stay focused an on-task with fewer errors and interpersonal conflicts," Lee added.

Researchers also compared work-days to weekends.

They conclude the consequences of less sleep are not as apparent when one has the next day off from work.

*Image published for representational purposes only.