The solution: For every 20 nights employees get 7 hours or more of sleep, they earn $25. That comes out to $1.25 a night. The reward is capped at $300 a year.
“Aetna is clearly communicating that sleep is something they value,” said Christopher Barnes, an associate professor in the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington.
If employees wear devices like a Fitbit, the sleeping time can be collected automatically. Employees can also enter it into the company system manually.
The sleep program, which is part of Aetna’s larger workplace wellness initiative, includes many other components. Tweets remind people of the importance of sleep. A Tumblr post advises people on ideal sleep posture. A YouTube video shows stunt performers knocking over coffee cups and struggling to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches under conditions supposedly similar to sleep deprivation.
The CDC estimates that 35 percent of American adults don’t get 7 hours of sleep a night. Lack of sleep has been associated with heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.
Barnes said that while there isn’t data directly linking sleep and profitability, sleep is related to many other factors that might impact a business’s bottom line, such as job satisfaction, unethical behavior, leadership, work injuries, employee mood, and cyberloafing — whittling away the day on social media when you are supposed to be working.
Aetna declined to share the budget for its wellness programs.