The influence of unfinished tasks on subjective ease of falling asleep via negative emotions at work: a diary study

Although research on unfinished tasks began almost a century ago, the mechanisms through which unfinished tasks are related to sleep quality are not well-known.

Building on previous studies but focusing on a new mediator, the aim of this study was to ascertain whether unfinished tasks may act as a workplace stressor and negatively impact subjective ease of falling asleep through the experience of negative emotions at work.

By conducting a diary study, the hypothesized relationships were investigated in a sample of 126 employees followed for 10 consecutive working days. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to estimate the hypothesized relationships at the within-person and the between-person levels of analysis.

Results showed that unfinished tasks were negatively related to subjective ease of falling asleep through the experience of negative emotions at work at both levels.

In brief, our findings uncover one of the mechanisms linking unfinished tasks to employees' subjective ease of falling asleep, revealing that the observed relationships operate at the within-person and the between-person levels of analysis.