Economist John Maynard Keynes predicted in 1930 that in 100 years, technological advances will allow people to work only 15 hours a week. We haven’t reached that year yet, but it looks like the prediction won’t come true. Of the 40 hours and five days, very few have remained in the last half century. However, what was once a near-impossible utopia is now alive with a four-day workday.

Up to 180 companies have experimented with it around the world with very positive results, we have told about it on Xataka in several articles. And from all of our projects we draw a general conclusion: when employees can reduce their work week from five days to four days, they tend to allocate their new free time to one activity in particular: sleep.

Learning. Workers who were able to convert their work week in the pilot program to 32 hours recorded an average of 7:58 hours of sleep per night, almost an hour more than when they worked 40 hours a week. This is what follows from investigation by Boston College sociologist and economist Juliet Schorwhich tracks more than 180 organizations worldwide.

That is, employees spend nearly seven of the eight recovery hours per week sleeping, rather than doing activities, daily tasks, or socializing with friends. The percentage of people who were sleep deprived (sleeping less than 7 hours a night) fell from 42.6% to 14.5%.

Why? That is the question that goes round in our heads. Why do employees who take Friday off end up getting an extra hour every night of the week instead of enjoying free time, family, or friends? Several studies have shown that sleep and work compete with each other. And when you trade sleep for work, you have a big problem: you sacrifice your health and get poor job results.

And of course, when we have the opportunity to sleep, we always prioritize it. Even when we don’t know what due to lack of sleep they include illness, unethical behavior, decreased work commitment, poorer socialization and irritation, and aggressive leadership tendencies.

Sleep time is earned time. Evidence shows that workers who have tried a four-day work week see improvements in many measures of well-being and productivitysuch as life satisfaction and work-family balance. And the report suggests that these results may be correlated with the additional time they spent sleeping.

Clete Kushida, professor of sleep medicine at Stanford University, described in this Bloomberg article that increasing sleep helps workers have better moods, better short-term memory and concentration, better executive function skills, and fewer risky behaviors. In fact, 2011 investigation found that when members of the Stanford University basketball team added 90 minutes of sleep to their routine, they were able to run faster and shoot more accurately.

trend. The concept of a shorter work week is gaining traction as the pandemic has changed schedules and flexibility. Amazing case we explained it in Magnet a few months ago, in which the UK conducted its largest experiment to date on a four-day work week with 70 companies from various sectors participating. The project called 4 Global SundaysAlready has produced its first fruit.

A recent survey concluded that 78% of the leaders of the 70 companies said their transition was “good” Or they have no problem. What is even more encouraging is that almost all participating companies (86%) indicated that they will keep the schedule after the test ends In November. However, nearly half, 49%, said that productivity had improved, while 46% said that productivity had remained stable. In other words, 95% perform well or better than working five days.

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