Go Ahead, Hit the Snooze Button

One-third of American workers are not sleeping enough to function at peak levels, and that chronic exhaustion is costing billions of dollars in lost productivity, according to researchers from Harvard Medical School. The CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimates that 40.6 million American workers, or 30% of the civilian workforce, do not get enough rest. And the Harvard scientists estimated in 2011 that sleep deprivation would cost US companies $63.2 billion in lost productivity per year, mainly because of "presenteeism," people showing up for work but operating at subpar levels. One example, from a team at SMU: Workers waste an extra 8.4 minutes online—checking email, refreshing the TMZ.com home page, and so on—for every hour of interrupted sleep the previous night. Companies have been slow to grasp the effects of sleep deprivation on productivity, but it is now a hot topic even in hard-driving industries, such as finance, where pulling all-nighters is often viewed as crucial to getting ahead.