Reciprocal relationships between psychosocial work characteristics and sleep problems: A two-wave study

High compassion predicts fewer sleep difficulties: A general population study with an 11-year follow-up

INTRODUCTION

This study investigated the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between self-reported compassion and sleep quality.

METHODS

The data came from the population-based Young Finns Study with an 11-year follow-up on compassion and sleep (n = 1064). We used regression models, multilevel models, and cross-lagged panel models to analyze the data.

RESULTS

The results showed that high compassion was cross-sectionally associated with lesser sleep deficiency and fewer sleep difficulties. High compassion also predicted fewer sleep difficulties over an 11-year follow-up (adjusted for age, gender, socioeconomic position in childhood and adulthood, body mass index, health behaviors, and working conditions). This association disappeared when controlling for depressive symptoms. The predictive pathway seemed to proceed more likely from high compassion to fewer sleep difficulties than vice versa.

DISCUSSION

Compassion may buffer against sleep difficulties, possibly via reducing depressive symptoms.

Copenhagen Psychosocial "Work Organization and Job Content" as a Higher-Order Construct in Relation to Workers' Health: The Moderating Role of Leadership Quality

Originality/Purpose

The current study aims to investigate the novel approach of utilizing work organization and job content (WOJC) as a higher-order construct that is one of the domains of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), examining its relationship with sleeping troubles and somatic stress, while also exploring the moderating effect of leadership quality.

Sample/methods

Snowball sampling technique was used to collect the data in this study, with a population consisting of 360 workers employed in hazardous work environments at poultry feed mills. The structural equation modelling technique was applied to achieve the range of outcomes.

Results

The results reveal that WOJC has a significant negative impact on both psychological (sleeping troubles) and physiological (somatic stress) health factors among poultry workers. Although leadership quality did not moderate the relationship between WOJC and physiological health factors, it did moderate the relationship between WOJC and psychological health factors.

Conclusion/Implications

This study has significant implications for researchers, poultry feed mill owners, policymakers, and regulatory bodies. Additionally, the methodological contribution of utilizing WOJC as a higher-order construct provides unique insights for researchers.

Limitations

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the data was collected online from one province only; future studies should spread the sampling framework to all provinces with different domains of COPSOQ.

A 1-year longitudinal study of the stress, sleep, and parenting of mothers of toddlers

OBJECTIVES

The present study, building on cross-sectional research showing links between mothers' sleep, stress, and parenting, used a longitudinal design to consider (1) the temporal direction of links between mothers' sleep and stress, (2) whether mother sleep deficits predict change in parenting across time, and (3) whether mother sleep deficits mediate the inverse association between stress and positive parenting.

DESIGN

The study used repeated measures of stress, mother sleep, and positive parenting at toddler ages 30, 36, and 42 months.

SETTING

Data were collected at 2 sites, one in the Midwest and one in the East.

PARTICIPANTS

Four hundred thirteen mother-toddler pairs were followed. Mothers were mostly married, college educated, and middle class, but there was also considerable variability between families.

MEASUREMENTS

Stress was measured via parenting hassles, CHAOS, and role overload scales. Mother sleep was measured via actigraphy. Positive parenting was observed during the bedtime routine and rated using the HOME scale and other items.

RESULTS

Mother stress and sleep were inextricably linked across toddlerhood, and worse sleep was predictive of less observed positive parenting, even when controlling for prior levels of stress and parenting.

CONCLUSIONS

Improving mothers' sleep may be important in efforts to improve their parenting.

Association of job strain with accelerometer-based sleep duration and timing of sleep among older employees

Job strain has been associated with poor sleep quality and could lead to changes in duration and timing of sleep as well. This study examined the association of job strain with sleep duration, bedtimes and awakening times among public sector employees close to their retirement age. Differences in these sleep parameters between workdays and free days across job strain groups were examined. Duration and timing of sleep were measured repeatedly with accelerometers among 466 public sector employees in Finland (mean age 63 years, 86% women), who contributed to 759 measurements in total. Job demands (low/high) and control (low/high) measured by self-reports and job exposure matrix were used to identify low strain (low demand, high control), passive (low, low), active (high, high) and high strain (high, low) jobs. No differences in sleep duration were observed on workdays, whereas on free days those in the high strain group had longer sleep duration than those in the low strain and passive job groups. The high strain group also extended their sleep from workdays to free days more, the extension being on average 59 min (95% CI 42 min-75 min) when adjusted for several sociodemographic, work and health factors. This extension of sleep duration resulted mostly from a greater delay of awakening times from workdays to free days. Psychosocial work factors, such as job strain, need to be considered when promoting sufficient sleep duration among older employees, as those with job strain may have a greater need for recovery and sleep.

Paid Sick Leave and Sleep: An Analysis of US Adult Workers

OBJECTIVE

This study examines links between paid sick leave benefits and sleep as an indicator of well-being.

METHODS

Using data from 12,780 employed adult US workers in the 2018 National Health Interview Survey, the relationship between paid sick leave and sleep was explored while controlling for demographic and health status variables.

RESULTS

Logistic multiple regression analyses revealed that compared with workers without paid sick leave, workers with paid sick leave had significantly higher odds of staying asleep, lower odds of feeling rested, and marginally significantly higher odds of having little trouble falling asleep. The groups did not differ regarding the odds of taking sleep medication or getting the ideal amount of sleep.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest a link between sleep quality and access to paid sick leave, adding to a growing list of health and well-being variables associated with paid sick leave benefits.

Within- and between-person effects in the relationship between effort-reward imbalance and depressive symptoms

Theory suggests that a stressful working environment negatively affects workers' health. However, methodological limitations in observational studies often restrict conclusions about observed relationships. In this study, we examined cross-lagged effects of effort-reward imbalance (ERI; i.e., an indicator of work stress) and mental health (i.e., depressive symptoms) at the within-person level, while accounting for between-person variability. We used data from five panel waves gathered in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), comprising N = 5,778 (self-)employed individuals aged 50 years or older. Repeated measures for both ERI and depressive symptoms were modeled using random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling. The results showed no cross-lagged effects of ERI and depressive symptoms at the within-person level, but the intra-individual variations in ERI were positively related to the intra-individual variations in depressive symptoms at the same point in time. At the between-person level, it showed that individuals with generally higher levels of ERI tend to demonstrate generally higher levels of depressive symptoms. The findings question the notion that ERI and depressive symptoms influence each other over the course of time, but rather indicate that third variable effects account for observed relationships between these constructs.

Associations of Sleep and Health Functioning with Premature Exit from Work: A Cohort Study with a Methodological Emphasis

Sleep and functioning are associated with a risk of early workforce exit. However, patterns of change in sleep and functioning through time have not been investigated using person-oriented approaches to show what features of sleep and functioning are associated with an early exit. We examined the pattern of interactions between sleep and health functioning characterizing homogenous subgroups of employees and their associations with premature work exit. An additional aim was to provide a tutorial providing detailed description on how to apply these models, compared to traditional variable based risk factors. We analyzed data from 5148 midlife employees of the City of Helsinki, Finland, surveyed over three phases (2000–02, 2007, and 2012). Using repeated measures latent class analyses (RMLCA) we classified people into groups based on their trajectories in sleep and functioning. We identified four longitudinal groups: (1) Stable good sleep and functioning (reference), (2) Persistent sleep problems and good or moderate functioning, (3) Poor functioning with good sleep, and (4) Problematic sleep and health functioning. Compared to group 1, elevated risk was found in all classes with group 4 being the worst. In conclusion, focusing on person-orientated patterns of interactions between sleep and functioning helped produce qualitatively different and quantitatively stronger predictions than using conventional risk factor methodology. Thus, longitudinal person-oriented approaches may be a more powerful method for quantifying the role of sleep and health functioning as risks for premature exit from work.

Workplace Surface Acting and Employee Insomnia: A Moderated Mediation Model of Psychological Detachment and Dispositional Mindfulness

This study adopted a process-oriented approach to explore the mediating and moderating mechanisms surrounding the association between surface acting at work and sleep quality. Drawing on the stressor-detachment and transactional stress models, the current study proposed a moderated mediation model to examine whether surface acting would be associated indirectly with employee insomnia via lack of psychological detachment, and whether this indirect linkage is moderated by dispositional mindfulness. The study was conducted among 516 full-time employed hospital nurses in China over a one-year period. Results revealed that suppressed negative emotions, but not faked positive emotions, had a significant influence on employee insomnia over time, and lack of psychological detachment mediated the effect of suppressing negative emotions on insomnia. Tests of moderated mediation indicated that the mediated path was weaker for employees with higher levels of dispositional mindfulness. These findings advance our understanding of how and when surface acting negatively influences employee sleep, as well as point to implications for individual and organizational interventions.

Sensors Capabilities, Performance, and Use of Consumer Sleep Technology

Sleep is crucial for the proper functioning of bodily systems and for cognitive and emotional processing. Evidence indicates that sleep is vital for health, well-being, mood, and performance. Consumer sleep technologies (CSTs), such as multisensory wearable devices, have brought attention to sleep and there is growing interest in using CSTs in research and clinical applications. This article reviews how CSTs can process information about sleep, physiology, and environment. The growing number of sensors in wearable devices and the meaning of the data collected are reviewed. CSTs have the potential to provide opportunities to measure sleep and sleep-related physiology on a large scale.

Shift work and sleep disorder comorbidity tend to go hand in hand

Taking into consideration that shift work has a wide-ranging impact on circadian and sleep functioning, it seems likely that shift work increases the risk of a general sleep disturbance, spread out over a multitude of comorbid sleep disorders. The aim of the present study is to analyze and present the sleep disorder data of 250 shift workers and 971 permanent day workers, taken from a nationally representative sample. Additional data concerning duration, timing, and quality of sleep, daytime functioning and social/family variables were added to the analyses. The results showed that the shift workers experienced significantly more difficulties with the variability of their sleep times, reported more napping and considered themselves more as poor sleepers than the day workers. Most importantly, shift work, in comparison with day work, appeared associated with a significantly higher prevalence of the clinical, International Classification of Sleep Disorders' defined symptoms of nearly all main sleep disorders (including shift work disorder). For shift workers, the prevalence of a general sleep disturbance was 39.0% (95%CI 33.2 - 45.2), significantly higher than for day workers (24.6%, 95%CI 22.0 - 27.4). Moreover, shift workers were characterized by high levels of sleep disorder comorbidity. In addition, exclusively for shift workers, the prevalence of disordered sleep systematically decreased across decades of life and was considerably higher for single versus partnered shift workers. This study adds to the insight into the interacting factors that determine shift work coping and may play a role in occupational health interventions aimed at reducing sleep problems and thus improving the resilience and tolerance of the shift worker.

Exploring associations between state education initiatives and teachers' sleep: A social-ecological approach

Social policies that are not specifically aimed at impacting health can still have health consequences. State education reforms, such as standardized testing and stringent accountability for schools and teachers, may affect teacher health by changing their working conditions. This study explores associations between state education initiatives and teachers' sleep, an important predictor of productivity and chronic health conditions. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2013 and 2014 data sets provided sleep and demographic data for 7836 teachers in 29 states in the United States. We linked the teacher data to state education reform data from the U.S. Department of Education. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) of reporting inadequate sleep (i.e., <6.5 h and <5.5 h) associated with state education policies after adjusting for demographic characteristics. Teachers had significantly higher odds of reporting inadequate sleep if their state financed professional development, sanctioned or rewarded schools based on student performance, and regulated classroom materials for state-wide common core standards (ORs ranging from 1.25 to 1.84). More strictly defined inadequate sleep (<5.5 h) had generally higher ORs than less strict definition (<6.5 h). The Race-to-the-Top award, a US federal grant designed to encourage states to implement reforms through regulations and legislations, was also associated with inadequate sleep (OR = 1.41, p < 0.01, for <6.5 h; OR = 1.55, p < 0.01, for <5.5 h). Although this exploratory study did not have district- and school-level implementation data, the results suggest that some state education policies may have impacts on teacher sleep. Consequences of education reform for teacher health deserve more attention.