The relevance of sleep and circadian misalignment for procrastination among shift workers

Abstract

This daily diary study contributes to current research uncovering the role of sleep for employees' effective self-regulation at work. We focus on shift workers' effective selfregulation in terms of their general and day-specific inclination to procrastinate, that is, their tendency to delay the initiation or completion of work activities. We hypothesized that transitory sleep characteristics (day-specific sleep quality and sleep duration) and chronic sleep characteristics in terms of circadian misalignment are relevant for procrastination. Sixty-six shift workers completed two daily questionnaires over the course of one work week, resulting in 332 days of analysis. Results of multilevel regression analyses showed that on days when shift workers slept better and longercompared to days when they slept worse and shorter-they had more energy and willpower available after sleep and subsequently were less prone to procrastination. Moreover, the more work times (permanent shift) were misaligned with employees' sleep-wake preferences (chronotype) the more pronounced was shift workers' inclination to procrastinate at work. The present findings provide important implications for shift workers' effective functioning at work. Practitioner PointsTo promote shift workers' effective functioning at work, when scheduling shift work, circadian principles should be taken into account, and work times should be aligned with workers' chronotypes. Day-specific sleep quality and duration co-vary with procrastination at work. Thus, on days on which procrastination would be especially harmful, sleep of good quality and of sufficient duration should be obtained.

Why Don’t You Go to Bed on Time? A Daily Diary Study on the Relationships between Chronotype, Self-Control Resources and the Phenomenon of Bedtime Procrastination

“…In a study on general behavioral procrastination by Sirois et al (2015) , chronotype was not assessed, but results showed that general behavioral procrastination was significantly related to shorter sleep duration, longer time needed to fall asleep and more extensive use of medication to fall asleep, all of which can be interpreted as indicators for circadian misalignment which more likely affects late chronotypes. Thus, it would be an interesting avenue for future research to explore whether the experience of general behavioral procrastination can be partly explained by individual’s chronotype and potential deficits in self-control resources arising from circadian misalignment (for relationships between circadian misalignment and procrastination at work, see Kühnel et al, 2016 , 2017 ).…”

“…Previous research on procrastination at work showed that employees are less able to turn their intentions into action on days on which they have less self-regulatory resources at their disposal. Procrastination at work varied from day to day and as a function of employees’ level of self-regulatory resources: On days on which employees had more resources available, they showed less procrastination, compared to days on which employees had less resources available ( Kühnel et al, 2016 , 2017 ). In other words, procrastination at work was especially experienced when employees did not have sufficient self-regulatory resources available to initiate an intended course of action.…”

Training supervisors to support veterans at work: Effects on supervisor attitudes and employee sleep and stress

“…Other research has demonstrated that sleep complaints after returning from deployment are common for service members, with estimates of about 30% having issues even months after, and even higher for those with a traumatic brain injury (58.3%; Hoge, McGurk, Thomas, Cox, Engel & Castro, ). Sleep has also emerged as a critical factor affecting chronic disease outcomes, energy, willpower, procrastination, and performance at work (Kühnel, Sonnentag, Bledow, & Melchers, ; Litwiller et al ., ; Swanson et al ., ). It has been suggested that sleep can be improved through both individual approaches and organizational approaches (Litwiller et al ., ).…”

“…It has been suggested that sleep can be improved through both individual approaches and organizational approaches (Litwiller et al ., ). Organizational approaches may involve changing work shifts, aligning work times with workers’ chronotypes, providing flexibility in work schedule and/or place of work, and decreasing workplace stress through strategies such as supervisor support training (Crain et al ., ; Kühnel et al ., ), leading to improved sleep.…”

A Daily Diary Study on Sleep Quality and Procrastination at Work: The Moderating Role of Trait Self-Control

“…Second, procrastination has been studied mainly as a between-person phenomenon, with the assumption that individuals are consistent in their procrastination behavior. However, recent evidence suggests that there is in fact a great deal of daily fluctuation in procrastination behavior ( Kühnel et al, 2016 , 2017a ). This raises the question of which daily predictors of work procrastination are most important.…”