This is what happens to you at work if you have chronic insomnia

Data from the Spanish Society of Neurology from 2025 states that more than 4 million people in Spain suffer from chronic insomnia. And there's more: 48% of the adult population lacks quality sleep, and 54% of the Spanish adult population sleeps less than the recommended number of hours.

When experts talk about recommended hours, they mean, for adults, that they should allocate between 7 and 9 hours a day to sleep . “If our sleep duration isn't adequate, our health will suffer. In the short term, we'll experience problems with attention span and productivity; and feeling tired and sleepy during the day will also make us more irritable and in a worse mood ,” says Celia García Malo, Coordinator of the Sleep and Wakefulness Disorders Study Group of the Spanish Society of Neurology.

The biggest problem arises when this insomnia persists for prolonged periods because, in the long term, it significantly increases the risk of developing metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes , hypertension, or cholesterol and triglyceride problems. All of this increases the risk of vascular and degenerative diseases.

As if this weren't enough, lack of sleep has significant repercussions in the workplace. Specifically, according to Juan Luis Cabanillas Moruno, a specialist in occupational medicine and member of the Alliance for Sleep , it affects workers' daytime functioning.

Lack of concentration

When the expert talks about daytime functioning, he means that insomnia negatively impacts "productivity, memory, concentration, and worker performance." The data confirm this statement. It is estimated that chronic insomnia is associated with between 11 and 18 days of absenteeism, up to 45 days of presenteeism (being at work but performing poorly), and an overall loss of productivity of between 44 and 54 days per year.

“When a worker doesn't rest well , they unconsciously reduce their work performance . This is because a lack of consistent sleep can produce symptoms of irritability, chronic fatigue, daytime sleepiness that affects productivity, reduced cognitive ability (memory, attention, decision-making), increased risk of burnout , anxiety and depression , and high blood pressure, causing physiological and emotional disorders in workers,” says Cabanillas.

Making mistakes, having accidents

The occupational medicine specialist explains that workers with sleep problems "face a greater risk of making mistakes, underestimating risks, making poor decisions, and suffering accidents, whether in the workplace, at home, or in traffic, which can result in injuries and disabilities."

When a worker doesn't rest well, they unconsciously reduce their work performance. This can increase errors and accidents.

Here's the statistic: sleeping between four and five hours quadruples the risk of work-related traffic accidents . "And we can't forget that these accidents account for 21.2% of serious work-related accidents and 27.3% of fatal work-related accidents ," the expert emphasizes.

A clear example of what Cabanillas means is evident in the case of healthcare professionals. If they suffer from insomnia, "they can make errors in their clinical practice that compromise patient safety. The same is true for transportation workers, a sector in which between 40% and 50% suffer from insomnia."

Business commitment

Improving the situation and well-being of workers requires companies to adopt " primary prevention strategies , such as promoting healthy sleep habits, which should be implemented by Occupational Medicine services. These are simple, cost-effective, and highly effective interventions."

Proof that these projects work is that, according to the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion , every euro invested in occupational health promotion generates a return on investment of between 2.5 and 4.8 euros in absenteeism and 2.3 and 5.9 euros in sickness costs for the company.