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Illegitimate tasks and sleep quality: an ambulatory study.
Diana Pereira1, Norbert K Semmer, Achim Elfering
1Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Summary
Illegitimate tasks negatively impact sleep quality, increasing sleep fragmentation and time to fall asleep. This study highlights the importance of addressing workplace demands for better employee rest and well-being.
Area of Science:
- Occupational Health Psychology
- Sleep Science
Background:
- Illegitimate tasks, or tasks that employees perceive as unnecessary or inappropriate, are increasingly recognized as a workplace stressor.
- Poor sleep quality has significant detrimental effects on employee health, safety, and performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the short-term impact of performing illegitimate tasks on objective sleep quality measures.
- To examine the relationship between illegitimate tasks and specific sleep parameters like sleep fragmentation, sleep-onset latency, sleep efficiency, and sleep duration.
Main Methods:
- A 2-week data collection involving 76 employees from various service jobs.
- Objective sleep quality assessment using actigraphy.
- Multilevel analyses to examine the relationships, controlling for time pressure, social stressors, and prior-day outcomes.
Main Results:
- Illegitimate tasks were significantly associated with increased sleep fragmentation.
- Illegitimate tasks were also positively related to longer sleep-onset latency (time taken to fall asleep).
- No significant relationship was found between illegitimate tasks and overall sleep efficiency or sleep duration.
Conclusions:
- Performing illegitimate tasks can disrupt sleep quality in the short term, specifically by increasing sleep fragmentation and sleep-onset latency.
- These findings underscore the role of illegitimate tasks as a predictor of sleep disturbances, which may have long-term health implications.
- Addressing illegitimate tasks in the workplace is crucial for improving employee sleep and overall well-being.
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