Sleep has a “PR problem” and it’s costing us our health

Johannesburg, 3 June 2026 - Discovery has welcomed world-renowned sleep scientist Professor Matthew Walker to South Africa, where he delivered a compelling call to reframe sleep as a critical driver of health, performance and longevity. His visit comes at a time when sleep is increasingly emerging as a defining health issue of modern life and coincides with the successful launch of Vitality Sleep Rewards, which has already surpassed 100,000 member activations within two weeks.

Speaking at a recent Discovery Vitality event, Prof Walker highlighted what he described as a persistent cultural failure to prioritise sleep, despite overwhelming scientific evidence of its importance - a disconnect that continues to shape behaviour, health outcomes and productivity globally.

“Whoever the PR [public relations] agent for sleep has been, they probably should have been fired quite a while back,” he said. “We have come to associate getting enough sleep with being lazy. If you tell someone you get eight and a half hours of sleep a night, the unspoken response is: ‘If you have that much time to sleep, you must not be busy. And if you're not busy, you're not important,” Prof Walker said.

Prof Walker, Professor of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas, author of Why We Sleep, and Founder and CEO of Nightfall IQ, argued that this mindset is fundamentally flawed and increasingly at odds with both science and the realities of modern performance demands. He stressed that sleep should be viewed as an investment - not a cost - if we are to improve population health outcomes and long-term resilience.

Vitality Sleep Rewards taps into science-backed behaviour change

The event follows the recent launch of Vitality Sleep Rewards, which applies Discovery’s shared-value model to sleep health. Using personalised goals, data and incentives, the programme encourages members to improve sleep duration, regularity and quality - addressing one of the most overlooked, yet high-impact, pillars of health.

The rapid uptake signals a growing awareness of sleep’s importance, as well as a readiness among consumers to engage with solutions that support sustainable behaviour change.

“Sleep is a foundational pillar of health - and one of the most overlooked,” said Dinesh Govender, CEO of Discovery Vitality. “When our members sleep better, everything else improves with it.”

Prof Walker noted that his collaboration with Discovery has reinforced his belief in the power of behavioural incentives to drive meaningful health outcomes at scale.

“Human behaviour is fiendishly difficult to change - we are stubborn organisms,” he said. “But through your work, you’ve found a way to crack the Da Vinci Code of behavioural change - and to do it in a way where everyone benefits. I have not been this excited about a dataset since I was doing my PhD.”

Why sleep matters: the science and business case

During his conversation with Govender, Prof Walker emphasised that sleep is not a passive state, but an active biological process essential for brain and body function - and one that has far-reaching implications for both individual wellbeing and organisational performance.

Sleep, he explained, is when the brain clears waste, consolidates memories, regulates emotional responses and enables physical recovery. It also underpins other health behaviours, reinforcing its role as a multiplier of broader health outcomes.

“Sleep is not merely a third pillar alongside diet and exercise,” he said. “It is the foundation on which both depend.”

He also highlighted the hidden economic and organisational costs of sleep deprivation, challenging the long-held belief that longer hours equate to greater productivity, and pointing instead to sleep as a critical enabler of sustained performance.

After approximately 19 hours without sleep, cognitive performance declines to levels comparable to being legally impaired for driving. In the workplace, this translates into reduced creativity, lower engagement with complex tasks, greater reliance on colleagues, and increased ethical risk - including misreporting or cutting corners.

The effects extend to leadership. Research shows that sleep-deprived leaders are perceived as less charismatic and effective - even when teams are unaware of their sleep habits.

“Sleep is perhaps the very best form of physiologically injected capital you could ever wish for in a business,” Prof Walker said. “If you don’t snooze, you lose.”

Ends

Notes to Editors

• Discovery Vitality’s latest research, The Sleep Factor: A data-led blueprint for better health, is based on the analysis of more than 47 million sleep records, combined with clinical and behavioural data.
• The research shows that inadequate or inconsistent sleep is associated with a 22% higher risk of mortality, alongside increased risk of conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and depression.
• Poor sleep has also been linked to significantly higher accident risk, with approximately half of the impact driven by chronic sleep deficiency.
• The findings reinforce sleep as a foundational pillar of health, alongside nutrition and physical activity, and highlight the need for coordinated action by individuals, employers and healthcare systems.
• The full research paper, issued in October 2025, is available here: https://www.discovery.co.za/assets/template-resources/vitality/sleep-research-paper.pdf