Busy professionals experience many pressures that impede their ability to obtain optimal amounts of sleep. Working according to shift patterns, working across different time zones simultaneously and international travel¹ are all common causes of sleep loss. In addition, the use of artificial lighting and hand-held technologies at night², ever increasing pressure to perform (and to be ‘seen’ to perform) and the lengthening of the working day all make the challenge of getting optimal sleep more difficult for employees.

In this guest post, Professor Vicki Culpin, a professor at Hult International Business School shares her recent research findings on the influence of sleep quality on work life.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a circuit in the brains of mice that regulates their sleep-wake cycle. 

As many as 25-30% of Americans suffer from chronic insomnia, the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep through the night (learn more about insomnia here).

Louis de Lecea, PhD., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences: "This has potential huge clinical relevance. Insomnia, a multibillion-dollar market for pharmaceutical companies, has traditionally been treated with drugs such as benzodiazepines that nonspecifically shut down the entire brain. Now we see the possibility of developing therapies that, by narrowly targeting this newly identified circuit, could induce much higher-quality sleep."