15 trillion yen per year (approximately 145.419 trillion won). This is the amount of loss that ‘sleeplessness’ analyzed by a US think tank has on the Japanese economy. The era of companies that work even less sleep is over, and the era of ‘company that sleeps well’ is coming.
On the 12th, AERA, a Japanese weekly magazine, reported on Neurospace, a sleep technology company that has provided sleep improvement programs to more than 130 companies for 4 years.
In fact, research results are coming out one after another saying that ‘a society that sleeps well is more profitable’.
In May 2022, Professor Isamu Yamamoto of Keio University investigated more than 700 listed companies, and as a result, the profit rate increased for companies that secured the quality and time of sleep.
A 2021 thesis by Hideo Owan, a professor at Waseda University, also supports that improving sleep increases productivity.
The research team conducted a three-month sleep quality improvement experiment with about 200 manufacturing workers assuming an annual productivity of 8 million yen (approximately 77,556,800 won). As a result, the productivity improvement effect per employee was found to reach 120,000 yen (approximately 1,163,352 won) per year.
On the other hand, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania, the cognitive ability of people who slept an average of 6 hours for 2 weeks fell to that of a drunkard with a blood alcohol level of 0.1%. It is equivalent to a person weighing 60kg drinking 4 shots of whiskey.
Not only academic results, but also positive responses from front-line employees who have directly experienced the sleep improvement program.
In a survey comparing productivity before and after the program, the following items showed significant improvements: △I was able to maintain my concentration during work, △I was able to perform my work accurately and with sincerity, and △I was able to relax without being annoyed by trivial matters.
Neurospace CEO Takanori Kobayashi said, “No one wants to work in a state of low productivity. ” claimed.
It is necessary to create an atmosphere as well as to improve the system for a good night’s sleep.
CEO Kobayashi said, “Along with the introduction of a flexible system, the boss said, ‘You can sleep. He pointed out that efforts are needed to encourage people to sleep, saying, “Because companies that sleep well make money.”
Meanwhile, according to the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, the average sleeping time of Koreans as of 2016 was 7 hours and 51 minutes. It is 31 minutes short of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) national average of 8 hours and 22 minutes, and is at the bottom. The same statistic found that Americans slept an average of 8 hours and 48 minutes, while the French averaged 8 hours and 33 minutes.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.