“In our study, we identified four different components that are associated with mental stress. These are physical workload and shift work, psychosocial workload, social and environmental nonwork adversity and life event and health-related nonwork adversity. The more an employee had work and nonwork stressors, the more problems they also had with sleep,” said Professor of Psychology Marianna Virtanen of the University of Eastern Finland.

Loneliness and minimal social engagement with neighbours are examples of social and environmental non-work difficulties. The adversity that is not work-related but is due to stressful life events or medical caregiving is referred to as life event- and health-related nonwork adversity.

Flexibility is a Crucial Area for Improvement

Different stressors were connected to sleep issues in different ways. While work-related stress was linked to present sleep issues, loneliness and stress associated with the living environment predicted escalating sleep issues throughout the follow-up. The quality of sleep was related with psychosocial working circumstances.

“In this study, psychosocial working conditions were described by the contents and arrangements of work, such as opportunities for influencing and working hours, as well as by competence development and fair management. Especially when there are stress factors in private life, such as severe illness or death in the family, or being an informal caregiver for someone, flexible working hours are an important target for development,” said Virtanen.

References :

1. Mental stress factors are associated with sleep problems among older employees
   – (https:www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/961423)

Source: Eurekalert