There is no question that getting a good night’s sleep is important for both physical and mental wellbeing.

When people are missing out on the shut eye gold standard of eight hours a night, it comes at a cost, and not just to their health.

Bek Dalrymple from Simply Sleep consultancy says: ’There is estimated to be an annual cost of nearly £1,500 per employee for sleep deprivation. That’s made up of things like a reduction in productivity, motivation and related healthcare costs.’

In addition, employers can expect a 55% reduction in productivity; 28% more errors, and a 70% increase in the likelihood of workplace accidents.

In all around 200,000 days a year are lost in the UK through employees’ lack of sleep.

Yet, when it comes to one the biggest cohorts of sleep deprived people, the parents of babies and young children, there is a solution.

Bek and her business partner, sleep consultant, Emma Riley, offer sleep training, implementing strategies that allow parents to get their children to go to sleep at the right time, and sleep through the night.

’The results we have been getting show that, in a relatively short space of time, your baby, toddler or child could be sleeping independently for 12 hours each night.

’Every client we work with says: "We wish we’d known about this earlier",’ says Bek.

Their success has led them to turn their attention to the corporate market. They aim to persuade employers to include vouchers for the sleep training services as part of their package of flexible employee benefits.

Bek says: ’We would like employers to take a bit more responsibility in supporting their staff wellbeing when it comes to sleep.

’There are the businesses that are going to want to do it because they believe it’s the right thing to do, and then there’s the businesses that may look at it and go: "Actually we want to recoup some of that productivity: we want to make sure people aren’t off sick as often".

’There are definitely benefits to both the employer and the employee.’

Emma adds: ’One thing we see is that there is this acceptance that, if you have babies, you don’t sleep. But when you return to work and you’ve had a bad night’s sleep, it’s about employers thinking what that actually means for their business.’

l Simply Sleep offers a range of packages for one to one and workshop options.

Vouchers are available for all of them.

They include: Sleep Foundations, a gentle sleep plan is suitable for expectant parents or for those looking to set solid sleep foundations within the first 10 weeks and get an early start in establishing healthy sleep habits, and Sleep Transformation, their most popular sleep plan, suitable for parents of children aged four months to eight years.

This comprehensive plan is tailored to each family’s needs and will get littles one self-soothing and sleeping well within 10 nights, often quicker.

For more information visit https://simply-sleep.co.uk/for-businesses or email [email protected].