Hi there, it's Matt here and welcome back to the podcast. Today we're going to explore a topic

that affects every single one of us, yet rarely gets discussed in economic terms. Sleep. That's right,

those precious hours you spend with your eyes closed actually have an enormous economic impact,

not just on your personal productivity, but on our healthcare systems, businesses and national economies.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Matt, isn't sleep just a biological necessity? How does

economics enter the picture? Well, in our productivity-obsessed world, sleep has become a commodity, one that's increasingly sacrificed in the pursuit of more waking hours. But as it turns out, this is a tremendously poor investment strategy.

Think of sleep as the ultimate high-yield asset in your personal portfolio,

one that pays dividends in cognitive function, physical health, and yes, even cold, hard cash.

The numbers tell a striking story.

When we look at large-scale economic analyses,

insufficient sleep costs the United States economy up to $411 billion annually. That's roughly

2.28% of the entire GDP. To put that in perspective, that's more than the entire economic

output of countries like Ireland or Finland, simply evaporating into thin air because we're not

sleeping enough. And the US isn't alone. Japan loses approximately $138 billion, 2.92% of its GDP. Germany, about $60 billion, 1.56% of GDP.

The UK, around $50 billion, 1.86% of GDP, and Canada, about $21.4 billion, $1.35% of GDP and Canada about $21.4 billion, 1.35% of GDP. These aren't just abstract figures on a

spreadsheet. They represent real impacts on real people, lost productivity, increased healthcare

costs, workplace accidents, and even fatalities. Let's dive deeper into how

insufficient sleep ripples through our economic systems and what this means for you personally.

Let's start with the most direct economic impact, workplace productivity. A large-scale study found

that employees who sleep less than six hours

per night lose approximately six working days of productivity annually compared to those sleeping seven to nine hours.

This isn't just about feeling groggy. It translates to measurable declines in attention,

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