MONEY FINANCE SLEEP: How a lack of sleep is impacting your finances

DENVER (KDVR) — New research shows Coloradans are getting fewer hours of sleep each night, and in turn it’s making a lot of us cranky.

Not only that, but it’s impacting our finances as well.

According to a new study, nearly a third of Denver adults are sleep deprived, getting less than 7 hours of shut-eye each night.

Experts say a lot of it has to do with financial stress.

There’s actually research linking smaller salaries to employees who are often dragging.

A study from the non-profit group ‘Rand’ shows a lack of sleep costs the U.S. about $411 billion in lost productivity each year.

Research from the National Center for Biotechnology Information indicates sleep deprivation and insomnia cost employers $2,280 annually per employee.

Some analysts say managers take this into account when it comes time to dole out pay raises.

“I would agree and then I also think it has a huge impact on just overall mental and physical well-being of our employees and those that are around us, our family members — it has a huge impact so it is nice to see stats like that are coming out, and it’s raising a lot of awareness to that,” said JD Velilla, Serta Simmons Bedding’s Head of Sleep Experience and a member of the Global Wellness Institute.

The research goes on to show sleep deprivation leads to the U.S. losing around 1.2 million working days a year.