Understanding the wider social effects of sleep disorders is critical to identifying opportunities to scale up interventions that will positively impact the health, productivity, and well-being of individuals.
What is the problem?
Insomnia, the most common form of sleep disorder, is characterized either by difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, as well as poor sleep quality. Insomnia can have a serious impact on an individual’s physical and mental health, their quality of life, and their productivity. This condition can have cascading consequences for employers, families, and the global economy. Understanding the wider societal impacts of insomnia is critical to identifying opportunities to scale up interventions that will positively impact individuals’ health, productivity, and well-being.
Limited research has conducted on the economic and social impacts of chronic insomnia, defined as insomnia symptoms that occur at least three times per week for at least three months, with impairments to daily activities. This knowledge gap was fill by our study.
How can we help you?
- First, we conducted a review of the literature to determine and quantify the social burden of insomnia. This included the prevalence of the condition and its impact on QoL. Meta-regression is use to predict the prevalence of insomnia based on workplace productivity.
- Second, we used secondary data to analyze the impact of sleeplessness on well-being. We calculated intangible costs by using a well-being valuation approach. This represents the monetary value people with insomnia are willing to pay to achieve the same level as someone without insomnia.
- We used macroeconomic modeling to estimate indirect costs associated with insomnia, such as lost productivity.
This study focused on chronic insomnia in adult populations from high-income countries in Northern, Southern, and Western Europe, as well as North America and Australia.
What did we discover?
- The report shows that insomnia affects many adults in the 16 countries covered. An estimated 8% of the adult population will suffer from chronic insomnia and 14% from clinical insomnia. This represents approximately 41.6 million adults and 72.1 million adults of working age.
- Insomnia has a number of downstream effects on the individual as well as society. Insomnia is particularly link to a poorer quality of life. QoL Lower life satisfaction. In terms of the cost of insomnia, a person suffering from it is willing to trade on average 14% of his or her annual household income per capita in order to recover the loss of well-being that insomnia causes. This translates to a ‘hidden cost’ of chronic insomnia that ranges from $1.5 billion to $127.1 billion per year at the national level.
- Chronic insomnia can also lead to reduced productivity at work due to absenteeism or presenteeism. This results in an average loss of 44–54 days of working time per year and an estimated annual loss of GDP between 0.64% and 1.31%. The indirect costs range from $1.8–27.5 billion.
What can you do?
- Policy: Policies must implemented to ensure that chronic insomnia sufferers have access to affordable, cost-effective, and evidence-based treatments. In addition, workplace interventions will help identify and reduce the effects of insomnia. Public health campaigns can also emphasize sleep quality over quantity.
- Clinical Practice: The medical school curriculum and postgraduate training should include a greater focus on sleep, and physicians should receive ongoing education about evidence-based treatment options to better identify and manage insomnia. A holistic management and treatment approach is required, including screening for insomnia during routine clinical visits. Lastly, clinical care pathways should established or standardized to ensure timely diagnosis and treatment of insomnia.
- Research: More research on chronic insomnia is need, including its prevalence, the societal and financial impacts, and the social factors that influence sleep-health disparities. Also, more research should done to determine the relationships between COVID-19 and physical health, mental illness, and sleep. It is important to conduct well-design studies in order to determine the long-term effectiveness of pharmacological or behavioral interventions that are being use for chronic insomnia. Research using digital health data generated by individuals could also help close knowledge gaps about the causes, consequences, and prevalence of insomnia. However, such research must done with a health equity lens.