A six-hour working day with full-time wages sounds like a dream for most people, but for a group of 70 Swedish nurses it has been a reality for the past two years.

They were part of a trial aimed at testing the benefits of less work, which gained a huge amount of attention around the world.

But is the nine-to-five really going to be a thing of the past?

The results of the trial released so far are encouraging.

Nurses working shorter hours took less sick days, felt healthier and were more productive.

They also said they were 20 per cent happier on average and had more energy at work and in their spare time. This allowed them to arrange 85 per cent more physical activities with elderly residents, the study found.

Assistant nurse Emilie Telander, who has now gone back to eight-hour shifts, told the BBC: “I feel that I am more tired than I was before.”

“During the trial all the staff had more energy. I could see that everybody was happy.”

Despite the positive results there was one big problem: the cost. The city of Gothenburg spent £12m kronor (£1.1m) on the trial, largely because, despite productivity gains, it had to hire 17 extra nurses to cover the lost hours.

Even in Sweden, famed for its generous welfare state, this is apparently too much to bear.

“Could we do this for the entire municipality? The answer is no, it will be too expensive,” Daniel Bernmar, a Left Party councillor who has backed the Gothenburg pilot scheme said.

However, Bernmar says the trial has “put the shortening of the work day on the agenda both for Sweden and for Europe, which is fascinating."

While the idea may not be viable in face-to-face work such as nursing, where lost hours still have to be covered anyway, in more flexible working environments such as Sweden's booming tech start-ups, some companies have reported more success.

Linus Feldt, chief executive of app developer Filimundus told The Independent that sick leave dropped by a quarter when it shortened working hours. Meanwhile, employees produced the same amount in six hours as they previously had in eight.

"The biggest effect was that people were happy when coming to work and leaving work. There was not that fatigued feeling after a long workday. The employees felt more happy overall," Feldt said, adding that there are now less conflicts at the workplace and better focus.

Employees simply cut out distractions such as "social media and the little things we tend to do when we are bored or fatigued and instead focus for 6 hours," Feldt said.

While it may have captured many headlines, as well as the attention of overworked people around the globe, the idea of a six-hour working day has struggled to gain widespread political support in Sweden.

The Left Party is the only party in the country that backs shorter working hours and won just six per cent of the vote in the last general election.

Attempts to prove the economic efficiency of reduced hours have produced inconclusive results so far.

A handful of trials in the 1990s and 2000s were scrapped due to a lack of definitive data.

Another recent Swedish trial at a retirement home in the town of Umeå found that sick leave actually rose, from 8 per cent to 9.3 per cent.

One success has come at Toyota’s Swedish service centre where shifts were cut in 2003, sparking an immediate boost to productivity and increased profits.

The company has kept the shorter hours ever since.

If a six-hour day isn’t catching on in Sweden, with its famously generous welfare system and emphasis on work-life balance, there seems little hope for workers in “Anglo Saxon” economies like the UK.

But some companies have taken up the idea. Liverpool-based Agent Marketing first trialled shorter days for two months in early 2016.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled – leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: “Europe’s largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid £3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rue’s contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped £4m off of Flybe’s revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airline’s estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

Speaking to The Independent, Agent’s managing director Paul Corcoran said: “There were loads of really great benefits. People were refreshed and more creative. It was good for effectiveness and efficiency.”

Clients also noticed the happiness of the employees which helped win business, Corcoran said.

Agent stuck rigidly to the six hour format at first which led to some impressive changes.

Corcoran said one hour meetings have been cut to fifteen minutes because of the imperative to save time.

But he added: “There were challenges surrounding it. Surprisingly it sometimes actually brought about more stress, because people feel they’ve got to get their work done more quickly in order to go earlier,” Corcoran said.

Eventually, the company settled for a compromise - every Friday is a six hours and employees can each choose another shorter day each week. The other three are normal business hours. But the benefits have remained, with happier, more productive employees, Corcoran said.

The company also provides meditation, pilates and a monthly massage to all staff.

But even this seemingly perfect workplace can’t avoid commercial realities.