New report shows inadequate sleep is costing the country $66.3 billion

A NEW report has revealed just how much a lack of shut eye is costing us. A lot of money is being lost - and even worse, a lot of lives are being lost too.

Our lack of sleep is costing Australia $66.2 billion each year.

IF you thought a bad night’s sleep was only impacting your health — think again.

A new report shows our obsession with technology, those suffering from anxiety and insomnia, as well as people employed in shift work are costing the country more than $66 billion annually.

The report, released on Tuesday by the Deloitte Access Economics, commissioned by Sleep Health Foundation, said the loss is made up of $26.2 billion in financial costs and $40.1 billion in the loss of wellbeing.

The report found that inadequate sleep is highly prevalent in Australia with an estimated 39.8% of Australian adults experiencing some form of inadequate sleep.

The report found that inadequate sleep is highly prevalent in Australia with an estimated 39.8% of Australian adults experiencing some form of inadequate sleep.

That’s equivalent to four in 10 Australian adults — or 7.4 million people.

The comprehensive report revealed that sleep deprivation was linked to 3,017 deaths in 2016-17, with 394 of those occurring because a person has fallen asleep at the wheel of a vehicle or from industrial accidents due to lack of sleep.

The remaining deaths are heart disease and diabetes deaths linked to sleep disorders.

Our addiction to technology is having a detrimental impact on our sleep pattern.

The foundation’s chair Professor Dorothy Bruck told the Daily Telegraph that sleep must be prioritised like diet and exercise.

“Sleep affects every single cell of the body in every organ of the body. With diabetes we have seen in studies of otherwise healthy people that when you deprive them of sleep their whole glucose metabolism is compromised and they actually go into a pre-diabetic state,” she said.

Last year, an American CEO came up with a unique way to get his employees to get more shut eye, and in turn increase their productivity. He’d pay them to sleep.

Mark Bertolini, the head of US health insurance company Aetna, introduced the program that pays employees who regularly get seven or more hours of sleep a night.

“If they can prove they get 20 nights of sleep for seven hours or more in a row, we will give them $US25 [$33] a night, up to $US500 [$661] a year,” he told CNBC’s Squawk Box program.

Speaking to news.com.au, the head of the Australian Sleep Health Foundation, Professor David Hillman, says introducing a program like Aetna’s in our workplaces could help the one in four Australians who regularly have a bad night’s sleep.

Feeling tired this morning? That late night Netflix session isn't just costing you your health.

“These people are existing in what we call a ‘sleep restricted state’, where they don’t perform as well as they could be,” Prof Hillman told news.com.au.

“This CEO [Mark Bertolini] obviously recognises that you can turn up to work and be able to function, but not optimally. What he wants is optimal performance, and that’s what sleep gives you.

“The elements in our lives are work, family, our social lives, social media and sleep. The bit that is most easily squeezed out is sleep and we’re suffering as a result.

“The problems are so bad now that a lot of us are thinking ‘This is getting ridiculous, I need to do something about this’,” he said.

According to the report, other health conditions that coincide with lack of sleep including heart disease, diabetes, and weight gain.

— with Rebecca Sullivan