Summary: A study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine found that middle-aged US workers experiencing high job strain reported significantly more sleep disturbances over a nine-year period. The research analyzed data from 1,721 workers using Karasek’s Job-Demand-Control model to measure job strain and assessed sleep disturbances through four common symptoms. Researchers suggest workplace interventions, such as reducing workloads and increasing worker autonomy, to address job strain and improve sleep health.
Key Takeaways:
- Job Strain and Sleep Disturbances: Middle-aged workers with high job strain, defined by high demands and low control, reported worsening sleep disturbances, including trouble falling asleep and feeling unrested, over an average nine-year follow-up.
- Robust Associations Across Models: Using six formulations of Karasek’s Job-Demand-Control model, researchers consistently found that higher job strain at baseline predicted increased sleep troubles over time.
- Call for Workplace Interventions: The findings highlight the need for strategies to reduce job strain, such as redesigning workloads and promoting worker autonomy, to support sleep health and well-being.
Middle-aged workers in the US who experience high job strain may face an increased risk of sleep disturbances, according to a new study.
The study, published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, found that middle-aged workers who reported high job strain at the start of the study experienced significantly more sleep disturbances over an average follow-up of nine years.
The study analyzed data from 1,721 workers, with an average age of 51 years, who participated in the Midlife in the United States study. Sleep disturbances were assessed with an established scale, based on four sleep-related symptoms: trouble falling asleep, waking up during the night and having difficulty going back to sleep, waking up too early in the morning and being unable to get back to sleep, and feeling unrested during the day no matter how many hours of sleep.
The team used six different formulations to quantify job strain based on Karasek’s Job‐Demand‐Control model, which defines job strain as a combination of high job demand and low job control. All formulations showed significant associations between higher job strain at baseline and increased sleep disturbances over time.
“Our findings also suggest that the continuous formulations of job strain demonstrate better model performance with consistent and robust results, offering empirical evidence for future psychosocial occupational health research in the United States,” says the first author Yijia Sun, an MS candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles, in a release.
Corresponding author Jian Li, MD, PhD, a professor of Work and Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, notes that there is an urgent need for workplace interventions to reduce stress. “Strategies such as redesigning workloads and promoting worker autonomy could play an important role in improving sleep health and workers’ well-being,” he says in a release.
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