CDC sleep study: 30% of US workers don’t get enough rest

Nearly one-third of workers in the US aren't getting enough sleep, according to a new government report.

An estimated 30 percent of employed US adults get less than six hours of sleep a night, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its report. The National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours of sleep for healthy adults, MSNBC reported.

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Not surprisingly, night shift workers are more likely to not get enough sleep, as well as people who work more than one job or more than 40 hours a week, the study's lead author, Dr. Sara Luckhaupt, told US News & World Report.

"There about 41 million workers who aren't getting the recommended amount of sleep," she said.

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Workers who don't get enough sleep are more likely to get injured on the job and make mistakes that could injure them and their co-workers, according to the report.

Over time, insufficient sleep can also affect overall health, resulting in cardiovascular problems, obesity, diabetes and depression, CBS News reported.

Companies should implement policies to improve workers' chances for enough sleep, such as training programs on sleep and working hours and designing work shifts to improve sleep opportunities, according to the report.

The report was published in this week's issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report using data from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey.