An article on the UK website Simply Business offers some suggestions for organizations that wish to cut back on excessive employee sick days while maintaining a positive rapport with their staff.

Causes of absenteeism include legitimate illness or injury, workplace stress and employees taking sick days when they are not justified – like kids playing hooky from school.

Employers who provide anti-bacterial soaps and keep a clean workplace may help reduce the spread of viruses when sick workers show up for duty. Additionally, encouraging those employees to take a day off may help mitigate illness among an entire staff.

A workplace should be free of safety risks and provide workers with good quality, lumbar-supporting chairs to reduce back pain, which is one of the more common causes of absenteeism. Employers may want to run a risk assessment of their workplace to screen for health and safety issues.

Stress is another reason employees call in sick. To prevent this, employers may want to make sure there is a healthy work environment and that staff members are not being overworked.

Providing incentives for employees who maintain a good attendance record may also discourage unjustified sick days.

Additionally, organizations that provide employee wellness programs with tools and resources for stress management and physical health may effectively reduce absenteeism while reducing workplace stress.

Employees who experience elevated levels of stress at work are more prone to have sleep bruxism, a condition in which individuals clench their jaws or grind their teeth at night, according to research that was published in the journal Head and Face Medicine.

A team of scientists monitored nearly 70 participants who slept with plates in their mouths, which meant to measure severity of teeth grinding.

While they saw no correlation with age, sex or education, the researchers said that the most intense bruxers were those who reported high levels of stress at work.

“Our data support the assumption that people with the most problematic grinding do not seem to be able to deal with stress in an adequate way,” said study co-author Maria Giraki.

A researcher at the University of Alberta (UA) has warned that individuals should take fatigue seriously, as it has the potential to lead to delirium, withdrawal from society and sleep disorders.

Karin Olson, professor of nursing at UA, has studied the effects of fatigue in employees, athletes, cancer patients and individuals with mental disorders, and says that there are three stages of sleep-deprivation.

The first is simple tiredness, which may cause forgetfulness or irritability but can typically be alleviated with more sleep. The second step is fatigue, which includes hindered concentration, increased stress, a decrease in stamina and sensitivity to light.

The third phase – which should be avoided – is exhaustion. This condition leads to severe confusion, a numbness to emotions, sleep disorders and social withdrawal.

“The onset of the manifestations of fatigue, particularly if these are not normal states for you, should be taken seriously,” Olson said.

Results of the study suggest that employees who display symptoms of tiredness should act sooner than later to treat their condition and prevent further complications. Employee wellness programs that include tools and resources for healthy sleep habits may effectively reduce workplace stress and strengthen employee performance.

An article on Health.com reports that an estimated 35 percent of Americans are not getting enough sleep, which may lead to unsafe roads and an unproductive workforce.

Moreover, that rate has increased from 23 percent in 1985, and authors noted that this may be due to a changing workforce and advances in technology that have people on a 24-hour cycle of communication and information.

Workers are now putting in more hours due to a competitive employment environment, and feeling the pressure to stay connected to the office at all hours. Both of these factors may lead to stress and a lack of sleep.

“We need to start seeing sleep as a central part of health. It isn’t a luxury,” said Lela McKnight-Eily, PhD, study co-author and epidemiologist and clinical psychologist with the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Heath Promotion, quoted by the news source.

Additionally, it was found that college-educated individuals tend to suffer more from sleep disturbances than their counterparts with high school diplomas. This may suggest that educated employees – who also tend to have more responsibilities – could be at a higher risk for the health problems, stress and lack of focus that plague tired individuals.

The National Institutes of Health reports that stress may also cause insomnia, suggesting a two-way correlation between anxiety and sleep loss.

Organizations that want to take care of staff members who work long hours and play integral roles in the company may want to consider employee wellness programs that focus on healthy sleep patterns and tout the benefits of a good night’s sleep.

In a study conducted by researchers at Colorado University’s Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory (CUSCL), it was suggested that individuals who are deprived of sleep consume more energy than those who get a full night’s rest.

Authors of the study said its results demonstrate the metabolic costs of sleep deprivation. While a missed night of sleep burned about 135 calories, researchers noted that staying awake is not a good weight loss method and may result in impaired cognitive and metabolic functions.

“Some conserved energy may be re-distributed to support vital physiological processes like learning and memory consolidation, immune function, and hormone synthesis and release,” said Kenneth Wright, the study’s lead author and director of the CUSCL.

Results of the study point to the importance of sleep when it comes to energy use. They suggest that employees who develop healthy sleep patterns may be more productive during the day.

A National Institutes of Health study has shown that employees with insomnia and poor sleep habits were less productive at work and took more prescription sleep medications than their well-rested counterparts. Additionally, the research suggested that fatigue-related costs averaged nearly $2,000 per employee annually.