Why your late nights are costing the UK £40bn a year

The UK is a nation of night owls, with the British Night Council reporting around a third of us get less than six hours' sleep a night, says The Independent.

According to a new study, this could be a major contributor to our poor economic output too: think-tank Rand says it's costing £40bn a year.

Rand's research is based on an analysis of a survey of 62,000 UK workers in 2015 and 2016, undertaken by the insurer Vitality Health and the consultancy Mercer as part of their Britain's Healthiest Workplace competition.

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In total, it found the UK loses 200,000 working days a year as a result of people who get less than six hours' sleep a night taking more days off sick and reporting lower productivity while at work.

There are also estimated long-term effects on wages and output as a result of workers who sleep less having a 13 per cent greater risk of dying early and younger people progressing more slowly through their careers.

Cumulatively, Rand calculates this amounts to 1.86 per cent of GDP, or £40bn, a year.

In contrast, boosting sleep to between six and seven hours a night could add £24bn to GDP.

"While the impact of tired workers in the UK may sound bad, it still ranked better than both the US and Japan which lost the most working days due to lack of sleep," says the BBC.

An amount equivalent to 2.9 and 2.3 per cent of GDP respectively is lost each year in Japan and the US respectively.

The UK ranks squarely in the middle of the five countries assessed, with Germany and Canada losing only 1.6 and 1.4 per cent of economic output each year due to sleep deprivation.

Rand recommends bosses "consider providing nap rooms for employees and not expect them to answer emails after hours", says the Independent.

Infographic by www.statista.com for TheWeek.co.uk.