The Way Work Boredom Can Affect Sleep

The article, “The Weird Way Work Boredom Can Affect Your Sleep”, summarizes the insights from research studying middle-aged American workers and their sleep patterns. To get an in-depth look, the researchers in the described study observed five distinct aspects of job requirements such as intensity, role conflict, work overload, time pressure, and interruptions. Furthermore, the sleep habits of the participants were evaluated for regularity, quality, daytime alertness, efficiency, and length.

How did researchers analyze their job demands? Participants responded to questions on a scale of one to five about whether people at work make demands from them, whether they find their work hard to do, if they feel work overload, if they deal with deadline pressures, and whether they felt they had enough time to complete all their tasks, how many interruptions they experienced, and more. The researchers also tied in questions about job control and analyzed information about the participant’s sociodemographic and health status.

It is important to have a regular sleep schedule in order to be productive at work. The research found that this can be difficult for workers who have low job demands and disruptive work schedules. According to the “job demands-resources theory,” workers with low-demand jobs may find their work boring, ultimately impacting how much sleep they get at night. This may be due to the correlation between how much intellectual stimulation individuals get during the day at their jobs and how much sleep they get. The researchers involved in this current study found that people who have demanding jobs tend to sleep better than those who don't have as much to do during the day. They believe this is because the brain needs time to rest and recover after being active, and that sleep provides this opportunity. It is important, though, that the level of demands a job has does not pass the threshold where it too can negatively affect sleep.

In sum, different jobs can have different effects on a person's sleep. Some jobs may be too demanding and stressful, while others may not be challenging or engaging enough. Either way, it can lead to poorer quality sleep at night. Therefore, the work environment should be tailored to create the optimum level of stress that will encourage an employee to do well, while also not being too excessive or leaving them bored and disengaged.

References

Nodurft, M. (2022, December 5). Work and Sleep: How Being Bored at Work Disrupts the Quality of Sleep. Sleepopolis. Retrieved December 19, 2022, from https://sleepopolis.com/news/work-boredom-impact-sleep/