It turns out employees working a 4-day week use their extra day off to catch up on sleep

• A study found that those who transitioned to a four-day workweek gained an hour of sleep per night.
• Sleep deprivation among those who participated fell from 42.6% to 14.5%.

A new study suggests that those who have a four-day workweek, as opposed to the traditional five, use the fifth day to catch up on sleep.

Employees who transitioned to a four-day week clocked seven hours and 58 minutes of sleep per night, an hour more than they slept while working five days a week, according to economist Juliet Schor (via Bloomberg).

Schor surveyed 304 workers at 16 companies across three countries — including the US, UK, and Australia — as part of a six-month trial run by the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global, according to Bloomberg.

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Sleep deprivation drastically fell for those in the study who changed to a four-day week. The percentage of those who had been getting less than seven hours of sleep a night decreased from 42.6% to 14.5%.

70 companies in the UK are participating in the program, and early results suggested it's been beneficial for them, Insider recently reported.

Of 41 of those companies that responded to a mid-point check-in survey, 88% said the experiment was working "well" and 86% said they'd were "likely" or "extremely likely" to consider keeping the four-day schedule.

The four-day workweek has been a rising topic among top business executives.

Adam Aron, CEO of the world's biggest theatrical chain AMC Theatres, asked in a Twitter survey this week, "Should I be out front urging a 4-day U.S. work week?"

"It may be time for America to formally adjust to a 4-day work week, instead of 5," Aron tweeted. "Good for AMC too if every weekend is 3 days long. What do you think?"