Taking place on Friday 18 March 2022, World Sleep Day is an opportunity for organisations to focus on the importance of sleep. A vital part of people’s mental and physical wellbeing, a lack of sleep can have severe impacts. 

It can make it harder to think clearly, reduce immunity, cause weight issues and lead to increased risks of high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. Furthermore, a poor night’s sleep can reduce the ability to manage emotions, impact on impulse control, reduce positive thinking, increase worry and worsen depression.  

For businesses looking to enhance wellbeing and maintain productivity, it clearly should be seen as a priority equal to efforts to encourage healthy eating, regular exercise taking care of one’s mental health. 

Welcoming World Sleep Day, Claire Clifford, Director of People, Skills and Culture at ACE said: “We probably all recognise the effects of a lack of a proper night’s sleep on our ability to work effectively. A lack of sleep over the longer-term can lead to serious and significant physical and mental health issues, which is why we’re delighted to champion World Sleep Day to members as a great opportunity to tackle this issue organisationally.” 

As well as the extensive toolkit produced on the World Sleep Day website, ACE has shared a couple of extra resources for members. A sleep infographic (kindly shared by International SOS) will provide members with the content to tackle this issue with employees, while our sleep diary will ensure your people have a tangible takeaway to help them on their journey to a better night’s sleep. 

These resources are available for anyone working for an ACE member, simply login or register with your work email address to access the exclusive member-only content. In addition, we have produced a series of social media and digital imagery, freely available for your organisation to use and extra resources from the NHS, Mind, Mental Health Foundation and Sleep Foundation will ensure you have everything required for effective and impactful internal campaign. 

Laura Hague, group safety manager at Mott MacDonald and chair of the Health & Safety forum added: “Sleep is an ongoing  vital issue for us at my company Mott MacDonald. It comes up time and time again and impacts on every area of our lives – mentally and physically – and I’m delighted to also be able to support the wider industry through ACE’s Health and Safety forum.” 

“We’ve shared a range of resources which should help any member – no matter their size – constructively discuss the importance of sleep with their employees.”