WORKING INDIA IS SLEEPWALKING INTO A CRISIS

We are discussing longer working hours, but not rest. Sleep deprivation is an endemic problem quietly eroding our productivity and health. It's time we woke up to it

- HARISH BIJOOR

HOW many hours did you sleep last night? Are you feeling rested? Do you feel sleep-deprived?

As I work with companies of every kind and size—the big, the small and the micro, and of the brick-and-mortar and new-age startup varieties—there is one common complaint I hear all around. The working Indian is not rested enough—not able to sleep as well as he, she or they did in the past. Something's going totally wrong. India looks, sounds and feels sleep-deprived.

Productivity at the workplace is getting impacted in the bargain. Bad sleep means bad decisions. Bad sleep means the grouchy employee at work. Imagine unleashing this employee in the space of customer complaint management, or at your hotel reception desk to check-in equally grouchy guests who have not caught enough sleep. The combination would be lethal.

Just as corporate captains and business leaders are asking employees to work longer hours, not a single one is coming out to champion sleep. No leader is really coming out there and asking people to sleep more. Sleep seems to be a personal item that belongs to the employee. It is a 'home item'. You sleep as long or little as you want. I, the employer, am not concerned.

Must the employer be concerned? Must the employer recruit sleep-specialists to coach employees on how to sleep better? Must your sleep hours and your pattern of sleep be the concern of your spouse and you alone? Is sleep affecting corporate productivity? Is lack of adequate sleep affecting overall health, sexual and reproductive health in particular, and eventually relationships? And are we addressing the sleep dragon adequately? Are we even acknowledging it as an issue? Is lack of sleep the new pandemic?