Moderate workload tied to optimal sleep

Among workers, moderate levels of job demand coupled with good job control appear to promote optimal sleep health, reports a recent study.

Drawing from the Workers from Midlife in the United States Study, researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 2,927 participants. The Job Content Questionnaire was used to evaluate overall job demand, as well as five specific subsets including intensity, work overload, role conflict, time pressure, and interruptions.

Sleep health was assessed across five dimensions: duration, efficiency, daytime alertness, satisfaction or quality, and regularity.

Hierarchical regression analyses revealed significant linear and quadratic relationships between job demands and various sleep outcomes. For instance, participants with heavier job demands had worse sleep health, an interaction that was linear in nature. This was characterized by shorter sleep, greater irregularity and inefficiency, and poorer satisfaction.

Meanwhile, quadratic interactions revealed that sleep efficiency and regularity were optimal when job demands were moderate instead of too low or high. Further stratification of analyses revealed that quadratic interactions were driven mostly by participants who had low job control.

“Tailoring the work environment by assigning not too high and not too low job demands can assure that the workplace provides a fitting level of responsibilities that benefit employee sleep health,” the researchers said.

“Alternatively, if extensive levels of job demands cannot be reduced to a moderate level, enhancing employees’ job control in these situations may be another way to promote sleep health in workers,” they added.