If you’re tossing and turning rather than falling asleep right away, it may be your job that’s keeping you awake — and it might be doing so in more ways than you realize.
At least that’s what researchers at the University of South Florida are saying in a long-term study they did that was published last month in Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.
According to the study led by University of South Florida psychologist Claire Smith, people whose jobs are highly sedentary — an estimated 80% of the modern workforce — experience a much higher risk of insomnia symptoms.
The study’s findings show that among more than 1,000 employees surveyed over a decade, sedentary work and nonstandard work times (swing shifts and overnight shifts) are “significant threats” to sleep health.
Those two factors, in addition to spending large chunks of time working on computers, are linked to a 37% increase in insomnia symptoms among sedentary workers and a 66% greater risk of needing “catch-up sleep” — which researchers defined as frequent napping or sleeping for longer periods on weekends and/or on off-work days.
“The way we are designing work poses serious, long-term threats to healthy sleep,” said Smith. “Healthy sleep involves more than just getting your eight hours. It’s also falling asleep easily, sleeping through the night and having a consistent sleep schedule. Companies should be aware of the specific sleep risks of their workforce to improve detection and intervention.”
Move more — or sleep problems could persist for years
Smith said the research suggests that moving your body during the workday and limiting after-hours work may not just help you sleep well that night but also protect against ongoing sleep problems a decade or more later.
The study also showed that workers who fall into a pattern of poor sleep due to their job design, such as long hours of sedentary work or erratic schedules, may end up stuck in such unhealthy patterns for years. For example, 90% of insomnia-like sleepers saw their symptoms persist 10 years later.
“This is particularly important for both employers and employees, since research shows that poor sleep health is known to impact productivity, well-being and overall health,” said Smith, who worked on the project in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of experts in psychology, psychiatry, aging and medicine.
She added that the findings suggest redesigning jobs with sleep health in mind could be key to improving worker well-being and underscore the need for workplace interventions that consider sleep health as a dynamic, multifaceted issue, rather than a one-size-fits-all problem.
Health risks associated with insomnia, poor sleep
Myriad studies have established the link between poor sleep quality and/or sleep deprivation with a host of health problems.
The Sleep Division of Harvard Medical School notes that “a lack of sleep — especially on a regular basis — is associated with long-term health consequences, including chronic medical conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease, and that these conditions may lead to shortened life expectancy.”
And then there are the undeniable effects poor sleep can have on your mood, mental health and cognitive abilities.
“Sleep and mental health have a well-established relationship,” said United Kingdom sleep expert Dr. Jo Bower after conducting an extensive study on the topic in 2023. “Not only can sleep problems occur before mental health problems, but sleep can also influence our responses to emotional situations and help us manage our mental health.”
Poor sleep quality and/or duration — especially in middle age — can have especially dire consequences during your retirement years. According to the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging, a 2021 study found that “people who slept six hours or less per night in their 50s and 60s were more likely to develop dementia later in life.”
Six ways to improve sleep quality
1. Be sure to exercise regularly. As the University of South Florida report makes clear, a sedentary lifestyle — be it during your work hours or off time — is anathema to getting proper shuteye at night. And your exercise need not be overly strenuous — rather, simply getting out and briskly walking for anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes a day can help mitigate the chances you’ll be tossing and turning in bed.
2. If you can’t get to sleep within 30 minutes, get up and do something you enjoy. Avoid going back to bed until you feel sleepy again. This will help you to establish a stronger association between being in bed and being asleep.
3. Allow yourself time to wind down before bed. Make sure your bedroom is comfortable, cool, quiet and dark to minimize the chances of being disturbed. Before bed, try using relaxation or mindfulness techniques, which have been associated with improved sleep quality as well as better overall mental health.
4. Avoid certain substances such as alcohol, caffeine and nicotine. Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants, which can interfere with our body’s drive to sleep. Thus, you should avoid them in the afternoon and evening. Alcohol also changes the structure of our sleep, making us more likely to wake up during the wee hours of the morning when we should be sleeping.
5. Seek out natural light in the morning and avoid blue light in the evening. Our body clock is strongly affected by light. Getting natural light in the morning helps us to suppress melatonin, which improves our mood. The blue light found in electronic devices also minimizes melatonin. This means that using electronics in the evening can result in it taking longer for us to feel sleepy, so turn them off or set them to nighttime mode an hour before you go to bed.
6. Maintain a consistent bedtime and wake time — even on your days off from work. Doing this this helps your body clock get into a routine, improving your sleep. Having a big shift in sleep time between your work and free days is known as “social jetlag,” which can be associated with increased anxiety.
link