It is likely that most people in Colorado have had trouble falling asleep before. Whether it was because of anxiety, stress or some other physical or psychological reason, it is not uncommon for us to experience a night or two of restless or no sleep. For individuals with insomnia, however, it may be much worse, preventing or making it difficult to sleep on a regular basis.
It is not surprising that a lack of sleep is linked with accidents and errors at work. As an individual operates on less sleep, he or she may not be as safe as he or she should be near heavy machinery, heights or other workplace hazards. Worse yet, someone who is well-rested may be injured because a tired colleague may not be paying as much attention as he or she should be to others’ safety. Regardless of if the injured employee was the cause of the accident or not, he or she is likely eligible for benefits from the Colorado workers’ compensation program.
A recently published study has evidence that insomnia was the cause or partial cause of 274,000 workplace accidents and errors. These accidents are not solely accidents in which an employee is injured, but it is likely that they comprise a considerable amount of the nearly 275,000 accidents. The study also found that insomnia-related accidents cost businesses more money than those accidents that were not caused by insomnia.
Approximately 20 percent of the 10,000 people who participated in the study said they had symptoms of insomnia for at least one year.
For anyone in the Denver area who is injured because either he or she or a colleague doesn’t get enough sleep, it is important to remember that workers’ compensation benefits are available, regardless of who was at fault.
Source: The Huffington Post, “Insomnia costs $31.1 billion in workplace errors and accidents each year,” Oct. 8, 2012
Learn more about our practice and what we have done for those who have sustained work injuries by visiting our website.
