Hard Work Makes It Hard to Sleep: Work Characteristics Link to Multidimensional Sleep Health Phenotypes

Work is closely intertwined with employees’ sleep quantity and quality, with consequences for well-being and productivity. Yet despite the conceptualization of sleep health as a multidimensional pattern of various sleep characteristics, little is known about workers’ experiences of the diverse range of sleep health dimensions (e.g., sleep regularity, daytime alertness, and sleep efficiency in addition to quantity and quality) proposed by contemporary frameworks. The present study integrates modern sleep frameworks with the Job Demands-Control-Support Model to describe common multidimensional sleep health phenotypes among employees and their associations with job characteristics. Across two national samples (N₁ = 2353; N₂ = 1260) of working adults from the Midlife in the United States study, latent class analysis indicated three common sleep health phenotypes: (1) good sleepers who exhibit good sleep across all dimensions, (2) catch-up sleepers who sleep longer on non-workdays and shorter on workdays but exhibit otherwise good sleep, and (3) short, dissatisfied, inefficient, and irregular sleepers (SDIIs) who were suboptimal across four of the five measured sleep health dimensions. Good sleepers reported low job demands, high control, and high support (similar to a low-strain job). Catch-up sleepers reported high job control and moderate demands and support (similar to an active job). SDIIs reported high demands, low control, and low support (similar to a high-strain job). We discuss implications for job characteristics theories, sleep health frameworks, and practical management of employee sleep when measured as a multidimensional pattern of sleep health experiences.