The Economic Consequences of Increasing Sleep Among the Urban Poor *

Pedro Bessone, Gautam Rao, Frank Schilbach, Heather Schofield, Mattie Toma, The Economic Consequences of Increasing Sleep Among the Urban Poor, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2021;, qjab013, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjab013

The urban poor in developing countries face challenging living environments, which may interfere with good sleep. Using actigraphy to measure sleep objectively, we find that low-income adults in Chennai, India, sleep only 5.5 hours a night on average despite spending 8 hours in bed. Their sleep is highly interrupted, with sleep efficiency—sleep per time in bed—comparable to those with disorders such as sleep apnea or insomnia. A randomized three-week treatment providing information, encouragement, and improvements to home sleep environments increased sleep duration by 27 minutes a night by inducing more time in bed. Contrary to expert predictions and a large body of sleep research, increased nighttime sleep had no detectable effects on cognition, productivity, decision making, or well being, and led to small decreases in labor supply. In contrast, short afternoon naps at the workplace improved an overall index of outcomes by 0.12 standard deviations, with significant increases in productivity, psychological well-being, and cognition, but a decrease in work time.

Understanding the lives of the poor is central to modern development economics. Economists have studied many deprivations associated with poverty, such as lack of access to nutrition, water, education, health care, and clean air. This article considers a previously unexamined challenge faced by the urban poor in developing countries: sleep deprivation. People in these settings face many barriers to a good night’s sleep, such as heat, noise, crowding, physical discomfort, and psychological distress. Sleep could be a crucial input to their productivity, well-being, and cognitive function. Yet we know little about how much and how well people in low-income countries sleep, or the returns to policies that seek to increase sleep.

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