Study: Losing 16 minutes of sleep can affect your workday

TAMPA, Fla. (FOX 13) - Getting a good night's sleep isn't always possible and a study showing it can affect your job performance comes as no surprise. 

But new research shows losing as few as 16 minutes of sleep can have an impact.

Assistant professor of aging studies at the University of South Florida, Dr. Soomi Lee conducted a sleep study with a group of IT workers and said she was surprised by the results. 

 Her research team found it wasn’t a matter of hours that affected function, but minutes.

"Across the participants, just losing 16 minutes the previous night was significantly associated with cognitive interference," Dr. Lee said.

She hopes studies like this will give people motivation to change their sleep-depriving habits, especially when it involves their jobs.

"Phone calls after work hours, late hour emails or early bird meetings, like 8 a.m. or 7 a.m. meetings," said Dr. Lee.

She says that bit of lost sleep each night can add up.

"When sleep is distorted on a day-to-day basis, there will be a higher cost in terms of a healthy later life  and also productivity over time," said Dr. Lee.