September marks The Sleep Charity’s annual Sleeptember campaign, and this year’s focus is women’s health—particularly the effects of perimenopause and menopause on sleep.

Symptoms such as night sweats, hot flushes, anxiety, low mood and frequent waking can make getting a good night’s rest incredibly challenging.
For those of us working in health, safety and wellbeing, sleep is an important workplace issue.

Poor sleep doesn’t just leave people feeling tired. It can affect:
🧠 Concentration and memory
⚖️ Judgement and decision-making
⚠️ Risk awareness and reaction times
📈 Performance and productivity
💙 Physical health and emotional wellbeing
🌱 Our ability to cope with everyday pressures

In safety-critical or demanding roles, fatigue can increase the likelihood of mistakes, incidents and poor decisions. That’s why sleep and fatigue should form part of a proactive approach to managing workplace health and safety—not simply be treated as a personal issue.

Bring Sleeptember into your workplace
💬 Start a conversation about sleep and fatigue at your next team meeting
🌙 Share practical sleep guidance with colleagues
📰 Include sleep and menopause information in your wellbeing communications
🤝 Signpost colleagues to trusted sources of support
💡 Consider how working patterns, workload and workplace culture may affect rest and recovery

Small actions can make a meaningful difference.
By creating workplaces where people feel comfortable talking about sleep, fatigue and menopause—and where these issues are properly considered as part of health, safety and wellbeing—we can help people stay healthier, safer and better supported.

This Sleeptember, let’s get talking about sleep. 💙