Age differences in workplace intervention effects on employees' nighttime and daytime sleep

Abstract

Objectives To examine the effects of a workplace flexibility/support intervention on employees’ sleep quantity and quality during nights and days and whether the effects differ by employee age. Design Cluster-randomized controlled trial. Setting Information technology industry workplaces. Participants US employees (Mage = 46.9 years) at an information technology firm who provided actigraphy at baseline and a 12-month follow-up (N = 396; n = 195 intervention, n = 201 control). Intervention The Work, Family, and Health Study intervention aimed to increase workplace flexibility and support. The intervention consisted of facilitated discussions to help employees increase control over when and where they work as well as manager-specific training sessions to increase manager support for employees’ work-family issues. Measurements Nighttime sleep duration, wake after sleep onset (WASO), and nap duration were measured with wrist actigraphy. Day-to-day variability in these variables (min2) was also estimated. Results Intervention employees increased nighttime sleep duration at 12 months, by 9 minutes per day, relative to control employees. There were interaction effects between the intervention and age on daytime nap duration and day-to-day variability in WASO. Older employees (56–70 years) in the intervention condition decreased nap duration at 12 months relative to older employees in the control condition. Older employees in the intervention condition also exhibited a greater decrease in day-to-day variability of WASO at 12 months compared with their baseline. Conclusions The workplace flexibility/support intervention was effective in enhancing employees’ sleep health by increasing nighttime sleep duration. Furthermore, the intervention was particularly effective for older employees in decreasing their daytime nap duration and day-to-day variability in WASO.

Patterns of infant‐only wake bouts and night feeds during early infancy: An exploratory study using actigraphy in mother‐father‐infant triads

“…These mother‐reported values were used to assist with actigraphy scoring due to the short and frequent sleep/wake bouts that are typical during infancy and add complexity to infant actigraphy data. Mothers and fathers' bed and wake times were determined from actigraphy data alone, which was consistent with previous studies using the same scoring procedures 22,23 . Sleep diaries were not used for parents given the burden, frequent inaccuracy, uncertainty, and potential for systematic bias caused by discrepant diary and actigraphy reports 24 .…”

Longitudinal associations of childhood bedtime and sleep routines with adolescent body mass index

“…For actigraphyassessed sleep duration at age 15, we used wrist accelerometers (Actiwatch Spectrum, Philips-Respironics, Murrysville, PA) to measure typical weeknight sleep duration. Actigraphy data were scored using a standard algorithm validated previously [21][22][23]. Specifically, recordings were scored by at least two independent scorers, and reviewed and adjudicated by an independent third scorer if there was a discrepancy of >15 min in sleep duration between the initial two scorers.…”

The effects of a workplace intervention on employees’ cortisol awakening response

“…Although the effect of the intervention was not apparent on average CAR across days, it had an effect on increased CAR on non-workdays. The findings suggest that this workplace intervention, which has been found to have positive implications for employees’ WFC (Kelly et al, 2014), emotional exhaustion (Moen et al, 2016), family functioning (Davis et al, 2015), and sleep health (Lee et al, 2016; Olson et al, 2015), and also has positive implications for employees’ physiological functioning. Findings from this study may be informative for researchers seeking to better understanding the mechanism through which work-related factors change employees’ adaptive physiological responses and also to practitioners seeking to develop more specific logic models for future workplace interventions.…”

“…Moreover, the intervention has been shown to reduce perceived stress, emotional exhaustion, and psychological distress at 12 months for individuals in the IT industry (Moen et al, 2016) and those with elder care responsibilities in the extended care industry (Kossek et al, 2017). In addition, the intervention increased employees’ nightly sleep duration (Lee et al, 2016; Olson et al, 2015). Thus far, there is no research examining the effect of a workplace intervention on improving employees’ biological stress system functioning.…”