The Cost of Work Seniority: 1 in 4 Execs Sleeps No More Than 5 Hours
One in four full-time workers in America can’t afford to sleep more than five hours per night. This is one of the findings from a survey conducted by career.io, which asked 1,000 full-time U.S. workers how career progression affects their sleep and its quality.
According to NIOSH, seven hours of sleep each night is recommended to maintain physical and cognitive health. But career.io’s Sleep & Seniority survey results show that the average worker is falling short. The survey revealed that as people advance in their careers, they (not surprisingly) become more deeply involved in their work. While more senior employees may get slightly more sleep, they often struggle more with maintaining a healthy work-life balance, to the point where some even report having nightmares about work.
A quarter of the U.S. workforce can’t afford to get good sleep.
According to Healthline, insufficient sleep leads to memory issues, trouble with thinking and concentration, worsening mental health, and many other serious problems. Just 13% of respondents report getting 8 or more hours of sleep on a typical work night, while 25.3% say they get 5 hours or less. Lack of sleep can damage and slow career progression by limiting productivity at work.
The survey also showed that Senior-level employees and those in Leadership roles often sacrifice their sleep. Almost 1 in 4 (24.8%) Senior employees and almost 1 in 5 (19.7%) Leadership employees sleep 4-5 hours per night on average. This is linked with the fact that people i these roles have more responsibilities and things they must control, which negatively affects their ability to get quality rest.
Work follows people to their beds.
About 4 in 10 workers check work emails every night before bed. And senior-level workers do this much more often. While only 25% of junior employees check their work emails every night, 33% of mid-level workers do. And this number rises to 55% senior employees and those in leadership roles.
With these roles often tied to greater responsibility, the tendency to stay “on” appears to come at a cost, especially considering how evening screen exposure has been linked to decreased melatonin production and not getting enough sleep.
Senior workers are most likely to be haunted in their sleep.
Almost half of junior workers (46%) reported never experiencing a work-related nightmare, while in the cases of mid-level, senior, and leadership workers, this number drops significantly to around 25% for mid-level and leaders, and 21% for senior workers. Additionally, senior staff are also most likely to experience these dreams during high-stress periods like deadlines or promotions, with over 1 in 4 (25.3%) reporting situational sleep disruptions.
According to the Sleep Foundation, there’s a direct link between work-related stress and nightmares. Senior workers have many more responsibilities and things to worry about, which worsens their sleep quality and provokes work-related nightmares. A concerning 17.3% of senior workers reported having these nightmares all the time.
The findings highlight that work-related stress doesn’t stay at the office, impacting sleep quality across all levels of seniority. As responsibilities increase, so do the mental pressures that disrupt rest.