At least he turned off the monitor filled with YouTube videos before falling asleep.(iStockphoto)If you find yourself staring at videos of snowboarding opossums or pictures of baby otters this week, you might be able to blame it on daylight saving time-related sleep deprivation.

A study titled Lost Sleep and Cyberloafing printed in the Journal of Applied Psychology argues people are increasingly prone to while away their time on the internet when they lack sufficient sleep.

"Cyberloafing," as the study calls it, "is a specific form of loafing behaviour in which employees spend work hours and company internet access to check personal emails or visit websites not related to their work."

The study is of particular interest this weekend, when daylight saving time kicks in and knocks off and average of 40 minutes of sleep the night of March 10.

The team looked at six years worth of online usage data from Google, and found that web searches about entertainment-related subjects, such as any that included "YouTube," "videos," "music," "ESPN" and "Facebook" rose sharply on the Monday directly following the switch to daylight saving time.

The study also monitored 91 undergraduate students' sleep patterns before making them watch a lecture on a computer monitor. Those who got fewer hours of sleep the night before spent more time surfing the web instead of watching the lecture on the screen.

The study said that managers and supervisors can reduce cyberloafing and increase their employees' productivity by encouraging them to get more sleep, reduce the frequency of working late into the night, and possibly restricting access to entertainment-centric websites such as YouTube.

How often do you cyberloaf on the internet at work? Do you think daylight saving time will, or already has, affected your workplace productivity? Take our poll and share your thoughts in the comments section below.

How often do you cyberloaf at the workplace?
(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers' responses.)

Related Link: How do you adapt to the start of daylight time?