Poor sleep can hurt employees, but how

The importance of sleep for human functioning is no secret. Numerous studies over decades have shown that people with sleep disturbances are more likely to experience psychological distress, act aggressively in their relationships and perform poorly at their work.

One of the well-established findings in the organizational behaviour literature is that poor sleep can lead to more frequent work injuries. Research highlights that poor sleep quality impairs mental functioning such as attention problems or difficulties in memory retrieval, and these are likely the immediate cause of work injuries because of poor quality sleep. Researchers Jennifer Wong (University of Canterbury, New Zealand), Nick Turner (Haskayne School of Business, Canada), Kevin Kelloway (Saint Mary’s University, Canada), and Emma Wadsworth (Solent University, UK) found that there might be other reasons why insufficient sleep is associated with work injuries.

In three studies of 4,500 workers from the United Kingdom and United States, Wong and colleagues found that emotional processes have a role to play in the relationship between sleep quality and work injuries. More specifically, they found that employees who had sleep problems experienced more difficulties in controlling their emotions and felt more anxious, which in turn was related to higher work injuries. Moreover, when compared with mental functioning deficits such as attention problems or memory impairments, negative emotions were a stronger explanation as to why poor sleep quality was associated with more frequent injuries at work.

The findings of these series of studies highlight the importance of sleeping well for safe work. These findings help organizational leaders communicate the importance of sleep to employees as well as offer guidance for how sleep hygiene programs may focus on not only the mental functioning benefits of better sleep, but also the added benefits of emotional regulation.

Reference:

Wong, J., Turner, N., Kelloway, K., & Wadsworth, E. (2020). Tired, strained, and hurt: The indirect effect of negative affect on the relationship between poor quality sleep and work injuries. Work and Stress.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02678373.2020.1774938?journalCode=twst20