Work stress can have a great impact and cause symptoms that affect us physiologically, psychologically, and even in our social relationships, and for this reason it is considered that people who have a very demanding job have more difficulties sleeping well, but a new A study has analyzed in depth the relationship between work demands and night rest and has found that low-demand jobs can be just as detrimental to enjoying restful sleep as highly demanding ones.
The research has been carried out by experts from the University of South Florida (USA) and its results show that moderately demanding jobs are associated with an optimal night’s rest, with regular hours and less time to fall asleep. They have also found that the degree of control people have over their working conditions is a key factor and that the more control they have, the more likely they are to sleep well.
“Pre-knowledge that demanding work degrades sleep may be too simplistic. The findings go beyond the previous narrative that work demands should be minimized as much as possible to protect the health of workers,” said one of the authors of the research, which has been published in Sleep Health.
Layoff from work or excessive stress disrupt rest
Little or bad sleep has been linked to various health problems, from obesity, dementia, or cardiovascular diseases, as well as an increased risk of premature death, the researchers recall, for which they consider that identifying and preventing or reducing the factors that influence sleep Lack of sleep, including work-related sleep, can help improve overall health and prevent long-term problems.
People sleep better if they have moderate work demands and appropriate control over their work
These scientists have recognized that, although their findings may seem contradictory, they suggest that both insufficient and excessive work demands may be related to job disengagement or excessive stress, which, in both cases, can disturb sleep.
“Previous research suggests that moderate stress exposure is needed to perform better. We were motivated by this concept and examined whether sleep health would have a sweet spot with moderate exposure to job demands,” said lead researcher Monica Nelson.
The researchers analyzed data from a previous study involving nearly 3,000 adults with a mean age of 48, about half of whom had at least a four-year college degree, and who were asked about five aspects of their work activity: intensity, role conflict, work overload, time pressure, and interruptions, and who also reported five aspects of their sleep patterns: regularity, satisfaction/quality, daytime alertness, efficiency, and duration.
The results of the analysis of these data showed that people sleep better if they have moderate work demands and appropriate control over their work. This means providing information about your job tasks, making decisions about your work environment, and learning new things on the job. “On the basis of these findings, it will be important to examine whether and how changes over time in work demands and control are associated with changes in sleep health,” Nelson concluded.
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