Work stress and sleep: small, realistic steps

You close the laptop, but your mind keeps going. The email you didn't get to, tomorrow's meeting, something that was said in passing and didn't sit right. Then it's midnight and you're still awake, or it's 3am and you're running through your to-do list in the dark.

If that sounds familiar, you've got company. The Sleep Health Foundation's Aussie Sleep Snapshot Survey 2026, released in August for Sleep Health Week, found that 36.9% of Australian workers, more than one in three, say work-related factors affect their sleep on the nights they don't sleep well.

October is also National Safe Work Month, led by Safe Work Australia. This year's theme is "Safe work is for life", and the second week, from 12 to 18 October, focuses on health. Sleep is part of that picture.

What the survey found

Among the findings:

The most common work-related factors were feeling stressed about work, the demands of the job, and shift work. Others included limited control over your role, challenging interactions at work and poor support.
Younger workers were more affected. 44.2% of workers aged 18 to 24, and 46.6% of those aged 25 to 34, named at least one work-related factor.
It shows up across the week. Workers who said work affected their sleep were more likely to report poor sleep three or more nights a week (62.2%, compared with 48.5% of other workers).
A busy mind was the top general factor across the whole community, reported by 41.1% of people, followed by worry or anxiety at 35.5%.

As Dr Moira Junge, the Foundation's Chief Health Officer, put it: "Poor sleep does not stop at the bedroom door."

A word about burnout

Burnout is a word that comes up a lot when work has felt relentless for a while. It's a useful way to describe how you feel, but it isn't a medical label. The World Health Organization describes burn-out as an "occupational phenomenon" that comes from ongoing workplace stress that hasn't been successfully managed, and says it isn't classified as a medical condition.

Beyond Blue describes feelings that can come with burnout, including feeling exhausted or drained, less satisfied with work, and unable to sleep as you usually do. If some of that rings true, it doesn't mean you've failed at anything. It usually means the load has been heavy for a while, and you deserve some care.

Small, realistic steps

You probably can't change your workload tonight. But a few small things may make your evenings a little kinder to your sleep. Pick one or two, not all of them at once.

Give the workday an ending. The Sleep Health Foundation suggests relaxing for an hour before bed and avoiding stimulating activities in that hour, including answering emails and text messages. A set time to close the laptop can help.
Try a way to unwind. healthdirect suggests relaxation techniques such as slow breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, mindfulness, meditation and yoga. It's worth finding one that suits you.
Move during the day. healthdirect says daily exercise has many benefits, including reducing stress. The Sleep Health Foundation says exercise is good for sleep, though not just before bed.
If you can't sleep, get up. If you're not asleep within 20 to 30 minutes, the Foundation suggests going to another darkened room until you feel sleepy again, without screens, food or chores.
Go easy on caffeine and alcohol. The Foundation suggests avoiding caffeine close to bedtime, and says alcohol may help you fall asleep but makes it harder to stay asleep.
Talk to someone. Friends and family can be a great support, and healthdirect suggests a counsellor, psychologist or social worker if you'd like more help. If it feels safe to, a conversation about workload at work can help too.

How Thrive can help you see your own patterns

Thrive won't make your inbox any smaller. What it can do is help you see how your working weeks and your nights fit together, compared with your own usual.

Your nights, against your normal. The Thrive Band shows your sleep, sleep stages, HRV and resting heart rate night by night. Your baseline starts as Emerging and becomes Established once enough consistent information has been collected, so you can see whether a busy stretch looks different from your normal, rather than from an average.
Today's Vitality and Today's Load. Today's Vitality, a daily score from 0 to 100, gives you a simple read on how you're travelling, and Today's Load shows how active your day has been.
Stress, sleep and activity together. Thrive looks at how stress, sleep, activity and your other signals line up over time, and you can add mood and stress check-ins, so a deadline week sits alongside your nights.
No screen on your wrist. The Band has no display, so nothing lights up beside you at night. Your information waits in the app until you choose to look.

Ask Thrive is the part of Thrive you talk to in everyday language. It draws on your own information and explains your patterns in plain English. You might ask:

"How has my sleep looked on nights before my busiest workdays?"
"What seems to go with my better nights?"
"Did my sleep change in the fortnight I stopped answering emails after 8pm?"

Ask Thrive can also help you set up a simple personal experiment like that last one, and follow how it goes. It highlights patterns in your own information. It doesn't tell you what's causing them.

If keeping an eye on your health ever starts to feel like one more thing to worry about, our article on a calmer way to live with your health data may help.

If you run a business: Thrive Workforce

If you look after a team, the survey above is about your people too. Work stress that follows someone home at night can come back to work with them the next day, as tiredness and less energy. National Safe Work Month is a good moment to think about how your workplace supports rest.

Thrive Workforce is our portal for organisations. It brings together wearable information that employees choose to share and short wellbeing surveys, so managers and WHS teams can see how fatigue, stress, workplace wellbeing and worksite heat are trending across a team over 30, 90 or 180 days. You can run regular pulse surveys and check-ins, offer support pathways such as sleep stabilisation, stress regulation and workload rebalance, and set your people up with activation codes and bulk onboarding.

It's built around trust. Each employee decides whether to share their information with their workplace. A manager only sees an individual's information when that employee has chosen to share it with them. Survey results appear as de-identified team figures, small groups are withheld, and individual answers are never listed to the organisation. When something needs a closer look, the portal prompts a person to review it, and the next steps stay practical and human: a support conversation, a workload adjustment or a referral to a support service. Board and WHS committee reports are de-identified summaries you can print or download.

If you'd like to explore it for your workplace, our organisations page has more detail, and you can register your interest there. We read every submission and reply by email.

Taking it to your GP

healthdirect lists changes in sleep patterns or feeling exhausted among the signs that stress may be becoming too much. If you've tried relaxation techniques and reaching out to someone you trust, and you still feel overwhelmed, it suggests seeing your doctor or a mental health professional.

If you book in, Thrive can help you get ready. Open the app to the weeks you'd like to talk about, so your GP can see your nights and check-ins with you, or ask Ask Thrive to help you put your questions into words beforehand. What Thrive shows isn't a diagnosis, and Thrive isn't designed to tell you that something is wrong. How you've been feeling, in your own words, matters just as much.

Our article on getting ready for a GP appointment with Thrive and Ask Thrive has more ideas.

If you'd like to talk to someone now, Beyond Blue's free counselling service is on 1300 22 4636, any time of day or night (local call costs apply).

Before you buy

You'll need a compatible iPhone or Android phone, because the Thrive app is on the Apple App Store and Google Play, in Australia and eight other countries. The app stores are only for downloading the app, though; they aren't where you buy the Band or a Plan. You can buy at thrivehealthband.com, or at a participating World Gym Australia location or health and wellness clinic.

The Thrive Health Band is A$660 for the first year under the launch offer (usually A$740). That includes the Band, which is yours to keep, and 12 months of the Thrive by Optihealth app, My Health on the web, Health Fingerprint, Ask Thrive, Thrive Loops and your data, paid once upfront. Prices are in AUD and include GST. Free Australia-wide shipping during the launch offer (usually A$14.99).

Nothing renews automatically. After your first year, you can get a new band plus 12 more months for A$660, or keep your band and renew the Thrive Connected Plan for A$240 a year (A$20 a month).

You're also covered by a 12-month Thrive Care Warranty, and consumer guarantees under Australian Consumer Law always apply. See Returns if something is wrong with your purchase.

Common questions

Is burnout a medical condition?

The World Health Organization describes burn-out as an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition. That doesn't make it any less real. If work stress is affecting your sleep or how you feel, it's worth talking to your GP.

Can Thrive tell me if I'm burnt out?

No. Thrive shows your own patterns, such as your sleep and the check-ins you record. How you're feeling, and what to do about it, are for you and your GP.

For more answers, see Questions.