The Monday Effect Revisited: A Diary and Sleep Actigraphy Study

Abstract

Purpose Accidents are more likely to occur during the morning hours of Mondays (Monday effect). This might be due to a higher level of cognitive failure on Monday morning at work. Methods In a pilot actigraphy study across one working week, we explored this Monday effect and regressed daily self-reported workplace cognitive failure on weekdays (Monday versus other days), background social stressors at work, delayed sleep onset and sleep duration. Diary data were gathered from 40 full-time employees. Results Confirming our assumptions, results revealed work-related cognitive failure and sleep-onset latency on the previous night to be higher on Mondays compared to other workdays. Work-related cognitive failure correlated positively with delayed sleep-onset latency and background social stressors. In multilevel regression analysis, Monday significantly explained variations in workplace cognitive failure. The addition of background social stressors at work and sleep-onset latency to the regression model showed unique contributions to the prediction of workplace cognitive failure. No significant two-way or three-way interactions between working days, sleep-onset latency or sleep duration, and background social stressors were found. Conclusion Peak levels of cognitive failure on Monday morning and the association of cognitive failure with social stressors at work contribute to understanding the mechanisms involved in the increased prevalence of occupational accidents on Monday morning. Occupational safety interventions should address both social stressors at work and individual sleep hygiene.

Yesterday’s Work–Home Conflict and Actigraphically Recorded Sleep-Onset Latency as Predictors of Today’s Cognitive Failure

“…Although there is substantial variance in sleep duration across workdays, our data did not reveal a relationship between daily sleep duration and workplace cognitive failures. This is consistent with recent actigraphy studies that emphasize the importance of sleeponset latency for cognitive functioning problems beyond sleep duration (Elfering et al, 2020;Kottwitz et al, 2019). Future studies might also examine the extent to which sleep duration can be compensated, for example, due to longer sleep on the weekend (Kubo et al, 2011), in order to maintain daily cognitive functioning.…”

“…As a result, the individual may be more prone cognitive failures at work (Brossoit et al, 2019;Wallace & Chen, 2005). This assumption was recently supported by actigraphy studies showing that sleep-onset latency predicts cognitive failure (Elfering et al, 2020) and problems concentrating (Kottwitz et al, 2019) at work.…”

“…However, longer sleep-onset latency might simultaneously be associated with shorter sleep duration during the night. Nevertheless, recent studies (Brossoit et al, 2019;Elfering et al, 2020) suggest that sleep-onset latency also predicts workplace cognitive failures beyond controlling for sleep duration. Based on these assumptions, we therefore hypothesize the following:…”

Lived Experiences of Mental Workload in Everyday Life

“…Research has shown that high levels of MWL at work play a role in accidents at home [17], and the impact of the weekend can afect accidents at work [16]. Similarly, demands for mental efort in our home lives can lead to poor performance at work [33].…”

Battery Discharge from Monday to Friday: Background Social Stress at Work is Associated with more Rapid Accumulation of Fatigue

“…The importance of sleep for performance and safety in the workplace has been widely recognised [58][59][60]. An important way of intervening in sleep habits is to improve sleep quality.…”