Job stress and poor sleep quality: Data from an American sample of full-time workers

Abstract

Given the associations between poor quality sleep and health, it is important to consider whether job stressors are related to sleep-related outcomes. Studies from Europe and Japan suggest that these stressors negatively impact sleep, but there are few studies of job stressors and sleep quality that draw upon large representative samples of workers in the USA. Using data collected via telephone interviews from a nationally representative random sample of 1,715 American full-time employees, this research considers three dependent variables of past-month poor sleep quality: number of days the respondent had difficulty initiating sleep, number of days of difficulty maintaining sleep, and number of days of non-restorative sleep. Negative binomial regression was used to estimate a count data model of the associations between the frequency of these three types of poor sleep quality and the job stressors of work overload, role conflict, autonomy, and repetitive tasks, while controlling for socio-demographic characteristics. The average American worker reported 5.3 days of difficulty falling asleep, 6.6 days of trouble staying asleep, and 5.0 days of trouble waking up for work in the past month. Across the three types of poor sleep quality, work overload was positively associated with the frequency of poor sleep quality. Role conflict was positively associated with difficulty initiating sleep and non-restorative sleep. Repetitive tasks were associated with more days of difficulty initiating sleep and maintaining sleep. Job autonomy was negatively associated with nonrestorative sleep. Given that sleep quality is associated with other health outcomes, future research should continue to explore the associations between job-related stressors, sleep quality, and workers' health status.

Impact of retirement on risky driving behavior and attitudes towards road safety among a large cohort of French drivers (the GAZEL cohort)

“…The decrease in sleepy driving, observed in the study population between 2001 and 2004, was likely to be facilitated by retirement during this period. The decreased likelihood of sleepy driving among those who retired is consistent with the findings of previous studies showing that job stress is associated with a poor quality of sleep (26) and that retirement provides additional time for night sleep and consequently decreases daytime napping (27). Likewise, the decrease in phone use while driving observed in the study population between 2001 and 2004 was facilitated by retirement, most likely because of the interruption of cell phone use for work purposes, which represents a large part of cell phone use during driving (28).…”

Job Stress Factors, Stress Response, and Social Support in Association with Insomnia of Japanese Male Workers

“…Meanwhile, stress at work has been shown to be closely related to insomnia. In studies in other countries, the workload was positively related to stress, and negatively to autonomy in work 8) . In Japan a number of studies have surveyed the relation between workplace stress and insomnia.…”

Gender differences in insomnia and the role of paid work and family responsibilities

“…The odds ratio for more than 6 h/day of VDT work compared to 6 h/day or less was higher for female participants than for males. The effect of being under high levels of stress, as defined by ERI and DCM, and widely used for theoretical occupational stress models as a risk factor for sleep disturbance, has been reported in many previous studies [14,33,36,[44][45][46][47][48]. It has been indicated that DCM is restricted to situational aspects of psychosocial work environment, whereas ERI has focused on salaries, promotion prospects, and job stability [49][50][51].…”