The monetary value of sleep

The community college tutoring center, where I work part-time, was recently so inundated with students that it began allowing tutors to show up at any time, no matter whether or not they were on the schedule. This struck me as a great way to pick up some extra hours during the week. When I told Ellen about my idea of going in to work early, she was quiet for a moment and then said, "Is the extra money you'll make during that hour worth losing the hour of sleep?"

I chose the sleep, but the underlying question stuck with me. If I were making five thousand dollars an hour, I would have been at the tutoring lab the second it opened. But as a minimum-wage employee, the balance tipped in favor of restorative slumber. Where exactly does the tipping point lie? How much money is an hour of sleep worth?

Pose that question to a college student in the throes of final exams, and they will quote you an impossibly large, probably fictional number ("Infinity billion dollars," after all, is not a real sum). But it's a practical question. Too little sleep can have far-reaching effects on emotional and physical health. Too much sleep can be equally detrimental, new research is showing.

What would you give for an extra hour of sleep? What would you not give?