In his August 2016 article for the Guardian, entitled “How getting more sleep could boost your salary”, Imran Rahman-Jones discusses the findings of a 2015 study on, as the title suggests, the effects of sleep on the ability of people to earn more money (Rahman-Jones, 2016). In the article, which us is clearly intended to health conscious, active workers, Rahman-Jones writes that people who get live in regions that get darker earlier in the day are more likely to earn more than those who live in regions were daylight last longer. According to Rahman-Jones, the reason for this is that people are more likely to sleep earlier and therefore longer in regions where there is less daylight. As a consequence of that increase in sleep time, people from such regions are more likely to be better rested and less tired when they go to work. The results, Rahman-Jones argues, is increased productivity which results in increased salary. In other words, the more sleep a person gets: the more happy and energetic they are; the more likely that they will thoroughly invest themselves in their work; the increased opportunity to finish their tasks on time or even earlier; and the more likely that their work efforts will be rewarded with an increase in wages or a promotion.
Rahman-Jones’ article, as mentioned is mainly based on a 2015 study by environmental and labor economics researchers Matthew Gibson and Jeffrey Shrader entitled “Time use and productivity: The wage returns of sleep”. Beginning with the age-old economics question of what makes a worker more productivity, Gibson and Shrader argue that prior research was incorrectly focused on a person’s health or their knowledge, habits, and social attitudes (WEC 2016). Instead, Gibson and Shrader argue that a better point of inquiry is to focuses on how a person uses their time, or more appropriately the influence of time use on a person (Gibson & Shrader, 2015). Since the largest time use that a person is generally involved in is sleeping, Gibson and Shrader hypothesize that the amount of sleep a person gets will most likely affect their productivity. To test their hypothesis, Gibson and Shrader analyzed information collected from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), which provided “rich labor information about individuals including” time use data, dates, and geographical locations (Gibson & Shrader, 2015). Using that information, Gibson and Shrader were able to devise a formula which combined information about the salaries of people in different regions of the country with the time that the sunset and the hour that people reported going to bed (Gibson & Shrader, 2015). After analyzing the information, Gibson and Shrader found that people who lived in regions of the country with later sunset times, generally slept less and as a result had lower wages. Conversely, people that lived in regions with earlier sunset times, went to bed earlier, and as a result had higher wages both over the short and long term (Gibson & Shrader, 2015). The health implications of the results suggest that the more sleep a person gets, regardless of where they reside, the more likely they will be more productive at work which increased the opportunity for salary raised and promotions.
On the whole, Rahman-Jones article for the Guardian, accurately reflected the information, analysis and results reported in Gibson and Shrader’s study. The one key difference is that the Rahman-Jones article also included supplementary evidence from other studies and reports in similar experiments or topics. For instance, Rahman-Jones also includes information from another study which suggests how a lack of sleep decreased a person’s productivity (Rahman-Jones, 2015). While Gibson and Shrader’s study stands on its own as a valid piece of research, the addition of other evidence in the Rahman-Jones article raises the believability of the article as something more than just a simple news story.
References
Gibson, M. & Shrader, J. (2015, Aug. 11). Time use and productivity: The wage returns of sleep. Retrieved from https://web.williams.edu/Economics/wp/GibsonShrader_Sleep.pdf
Rahman-Jones, I. (2016, Aug. 14). How getting more sleep could boost your salary. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2016/aug/14/snooze-win-good-nights-sleep-earn-more-money
World Economic Forum (WEC). (2016). The human capital report 2016. Retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/HCR2016_Main_Report.pdf
