Parents whose sleep quality is reduced by young children waking them in the night are less likely to work, work shorter hours and/or earn less than otherwise similar people who enjoy a good night?s sleep. The negative labour market effects of sleep disruption caused by children are particularly strong for low-skilled mothers. These are among the findings of research by Joan Costa-i-Font and Sarah Fleche, which uses data on 14,000 families in and around the city of Bristol in the UK to investigate the link between mothers? employment outcomes and their quality of sleep, measured by how much they are woken by their children at night. The researchers note that before now, the effects of sleep deprivation on economic activity have received surprisingly scant attention.

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3 July 2017     Paper Number CEPCP506

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This CentrePiece article is published under the centre's Community Wellbeing programme.

This publication comes under the following theme: Targeting policy at wellbeing