Sleep, mental health, and substance use are deeply interdependent: sleep disruption can increase vulnerability to substance use and mental health challenges, while substance use can further impair sleep and emotional regulation. One of the most important things any of us can do as individuals is prioritize sleep. And one of the biggest power moves a company can make for its bottom line is to protect sleep and recovery at the systems level: through policies, staffing, scheduling, benefits, culture, and work design.
If you’re thinking, listen lady, I can’t control what my staff does after work regarding sleep, mental health, and substances. Keep reading! You may have more influence than you think, and there are some very clear benefits for integrating wellness solutions into your workplace culture, policies & benefits, and work design.
Fatigue, mental health, and substance use are not three separate issues living in three separate departments. They show up together in absenteeism, presenteeism, turnover, safety incidents, healthcare costs, conflict, and performance problems. If we only address them through one-off programs, we miss the systems that may be producing or amplifying the risk.
The Cost
The National Safety Council (NSC) in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago has published a Substance Use Calculator where you can choose your company size, industry, and state to see an average cost of substance use in the workforce. Here’s the link if you want to take a look: https://www.nsc.org/forms/substance-use-employer-calculator?srsltid=AfmBOorLhpes7nsqViSLsLDyJIKBhG-67cyM614rT6yq0bMG-geG_OCj
NSC and NORC have also developed a Mental Health Cost Calculator: https://www.nsc.org/workplace/safety-topics/employee-mental-health/cost-calculator?srsltid=AfmBOoqmtcUrnJpvMLsJPtZMlJRK69xgnvXIWj4xXUQqbGM5GCNx_BP-#/
Nationally, substance use disorder costs U.S. businesses upward of $81 billion per year in lost productivity and absenteeism, with direct medical costs estimated at about $35.3 billion annually. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9972180/
For safety leaders, fatigue is an impairment risk that affects attention, reaction time, judgment, communication, and decision-making.
The cost does not stop at healthcare or workers comp claims. It shows up in absenteeism, presenteeism, turnover, safety incidents, conflict, reduced productivity, and leadership time spent managing preventable issues. Presenteeism (when someone is physically at work but too mentally, emotionally, or physically unwell to function at their best) is especially easy to miss because the person is technically “there.”
The Workplace Solutions
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for any of the issues we’re discussing, or we wouldn’t have anything to talk about! I encourage a more holistic approach to reviewing your own systems and engaging your workforce to understand issues, prioritize, and co-create solutions. But in the spirit of starting somewhere, here are some general recommendations to consider for the health of your workforce:
Benefits & Resource Access
Ensure your benefits include substance Use, mental health, and sleep. Share that specific information (your health insurance benefits, EAP, local resources, along with crisis resources like 988, 211, findtreatment.gov)
Education & Awareness
Provide health education on substance use, mental health, sleep, fatigue, nutrition, movement, and recovery. Just remember: training is only the beginning. Knowledge is only power when it is put into action.
Work Design & Fatigue
Review work design & policies that impact workplace fatigue, and sleep.
- Are there limits on shift duration?
- Are breaks and meals protected in practice?
- Is there recovery time after intense physical or cognitive load?
- Is there recovery time when shifts change?
- Do employees have access to PTO, and are they actually using it?
- Are staffing and workload expectations realistic?
Culture
- Review workplace practices that encourage overwork or create barriers to reporting fatigue, including attendance bonuses, glorifying visibility over outcomes, after-hours communication, and fear of consequences.
- Consider reviewing ISO 45003, Consider reviewing ISO 45003, Occupational health and safety management — Psychological health and safety at work — Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks to see where your team lands in terms of psychological health and safety.
- Consider implementing Recovery Ready and Recovery Friendly Workplace Practices.
While you may not be able to control what people do outside of work, you certainly have an influence, and you have a lot to gain from your workforce being well. If you’re looking at this list feeling overwhelmed, take a deep breath and consider asking this one question at your next leadership meeting and start removing the points of friction:
“Where are we making recovery (physical, cognitive fatigue & addiction), help-seeking, and reporting harder than it needs to be?”
You may not be able to control what people do outside of work, but you influence some of the conditions they are recovering from. You don’t need another one-off wellness initiative. You can start by looking at the systems you already have: schedules, staffing, workload, breaks, benefits, communication norms, leave practices, and recovery support, and making micro-adjustments.
When those systems are designed well, employees are more likely to sleep, recover, ask for help earlier, and do their best work. That is strategy, and reducing your reliance on individual resilience.
If you’re looking for a facilitated leadership discussion or fractional support to integrate workforce wellbeing throughout your organization and continue moving upstream of these issues, Integrating Wellness Solutions is ready to support.
Naomi DuCharme
Founder, Principal Consultant & Coach
Integrating Wellness Solutions LLC
