A sleep study is eye-opening

This research is based on a unique field experiment, the subjects are low-income workers in Chennai, India

"To our surprise, these nocturnal sleep interventions have no positive effect on any of the results we measured," said Frank Schilbach, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who is the new article.

In addition, the researchers also found that short naps during the day do help work efficiency and health

Schilbach suggested: "In these cases, people’s sleep quality is very low, and increasing low-quality sleep may not have the benefit of getting half an hour longer for high-quality sleep

This paper, entitled "The Economic Consequences of Increasing Sleep among the Urban Poor," was published in the August issue of the Quarterly Journal of Economics

Sleeping in rickshaw

Development economist Hilbach said that the origin of this research comes from other research conducted by him and his colleagues in Chennai and other places

"In Chennai, you can see people sleeping on rickshaws," said Schilbach, who is also a faculty member of the Abdul Latif Jameer Poverty Action Laboratory (J-PAL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

To conduct this study, the researchers equipped Chennai residents with an activity recorder, which is a watch-like device that can infer sleep status from body movements.

The study conducted a month-long survey of 452 people

During the experiment, the research participants were also assigned flexible data entry tasks, so researchers can monitor the impact of sleep on employee output and income in a specific way

Overall, the participants in the Chennai study slept an average of 5.

Schilbach said: "A key problem that stands out is that people's sleep efficiency is very low, that is, their sleep is very scattered

This may be why in a broad range of indicators, the people in the study did not experience positive changes after sleeping more

On the other hand, those study participants who were allowed to take naps during data entry work performed better on several measures

Schilbach said: "Compared with night sleep intervention, we found clear evidence that nap can improve a series of results, including productivity, cognitive function, mental health, and some evidence of savings

In other words, compared with resting workers, taking a nap only increases the total income

Schilbach said: "It's not that you can make money by
taking a nap.
" People don't actually stay in the office for longer during a nap, probably because they have other things to do, such as taking care of their family
.
If people take a nap for about half an hour, their working time will be reduced by nearly half an hour, almost a 1:1 ratio, so this group of people will also have a lower income
.
"

Pay attention to the purpose of sleep itself

Schilbach said that he hopes that other researchers will delve into some of the further questions raised by this study
.
For example, further research can try to change the sleep environment of low-income workers to see if better sleep quality (rather than just increasing sleep time) will have an impact
.

Schilbach also believes that it may be important to better understand the psychological challenges that poor people face during sleep
.

"The pressure of poverty is great, which may affect people's sleep," he pointed out
.
"It is worth studying how environmental and psychological factors affect sleep quality
.
"

In addition, Schilbach pointed out that using activity recorder technology and other equipment, it should be possible to generate more research to capture people's sleep patterns in a normal home environment, not just in a medical environment
.

Schilbach said: "There is not much work to study sleep in people's daily lives
.
" "I really hope that people in developing and poor countries can study sleep more and pay attention to the results that people value
.
"

Schilbach said he is interested in continuing to study sleep problems in the United States, not just in India
.
He conducted a lot of research in India
.
He said that in any case, we should take sleep problems seriously, as a factor in anti-poverty research and public policy, and as an important factor in health itself
.

Hilbach said: "Sleep may be an important way to increase productivity or people make other choices
.
" "But I think good sleep itself is also very important
.
We should focus on being able to sleep well without worrying about it at night
.
The poverty index is about Income and material consumption
.
But since we can better measure sleep, good sleep should become part of a more comprehensive indicator of people’s happiness
.
I hope this is our ultimate goal
.
"

Journal Reference :

1. Pedro Bessone, Gautam Rao, Frank Schilbach, Heather Schofield, Mattie Toma.
   The Economic Consequences of Increasing Sleep Among the Urban Poor .
   The Quarterly Journal of Economics , 2021; 136 (3): 1887 DOI: 10.
   1093/qje/qjab013