Work and sleep quality in railway employees: an actigraphy study

Effort-reward imbalance and sleep quality in railway locomotive stewards: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE

To assess the correlation between the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and sleep quality among railway locomotive stewards.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Lanzhou Bureau Group, China Railway, between July and August 2022.

PARTICIPANTS

Railway locomotive stewards.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES

Sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Scale (PSQI), categorising scores of >14 as poor, 8-14 as fair and <8 as good.

RESULTS

A total of 5738 valid questionnaires (mean age of 30.85±6.91 years and 5730 males) were included. The response rate was 92.27%. The PSQI score was 11.52±3.95; 2304 (40.15%) respondents had good sleep quality, 1590 (27.71%) had fair sleep quality and 1844 (32.14%) had poor sleep quality. Stepwise multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that, compared with poor sleep quality, Jiayuguan Locomotive Depot workers (OR 0.775, 95% CI 0.587 to 0.971, p=0.028), electric locomotive drivers (OR 0.499, 95% CI 0.316 to 0.786, p=0.003), passenger train locomotive drivers (OR 0.209, 95% CI 1.313 to 3.337, p=0.002), working <40 hours weekly (OR 2.291, 95% CI 1.686 to 3.112, p<0.001), working 40-50 hours weekly (OR 1.602, 95% CI 1.299 to 1.977, p<0.001), senior titles (OR 0.727, 95% CI 0.570 to 0.928, p=0.010), high effort/low reward (OR 2.812, 95% CI 2.218 to 3.564, p<0.001) and low overcommitment (OR 5.848, 95% CI 4.710 to 7.261, p<0.001) were independently associated with fair sleep quality. Electric locomotive drivers (OR 0.535, 95% CI 0.364 to 0.787, p=0.001), diesel locomotive drivers (OR 0.567, 95% CI 0.348 to 0.924, p=0.023), passenger train locomotive drivers (OR 1.471, 95% CI 1.005 to 2.155, p=0.047), working <40 hours weekly (OR 1.549, 95% CI 1.196 to 2.006, p=0.001), working 40-50 hours weekly (OR 1.340, 95% CI 1.141 to 1.574, p<0.001), high school diploma or less (OR 1.448, 95% CI 1.062 to 1.975, p=0.019), high effort/low reward (OR 1.237, 95% CI 1.006 to 1.521, p=0.044), balanced effort-reward (OR 0.653, 95% CI 0.478 to 0.892, p=0.007) and low overcommitment (OR 2.553, 95% CI 2.224 to 2.931, p<0.001) were independently associated with good sleep quality.

CONCLUSION

The results revealed an acceptable ERI and poor sleep quality among railway stewards. ERI was correlated with sleep quality. Health education, lifestyle changes and improved work schedules may help boost sleep quality and well-being among railway locomotive stewards.

Using leisure crafting to reduce emotional exhaustion at home during the COVID-19 pandemic through better sleep and not thinking about the pandemic

Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, we aimed to investigate whether leisure crafting reduces emotional exhaustion by improving sleep quality and strengthening psychological detachment from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We posited that sleep quality and psychological detachment from the COVID-19 pandemic mediate the negative relationship between leisure crafting and emotional exhaustion. We carried out a two-wave longitudinal study among a group of individuals (N = 216) from Wuhan, China. We measured leisure crafting, sleep quality, and psychological detachment from the COVID-19 pandemic at Time 1 and emotional exhaustion two months later at Time 2. We discovered that leisure crafting reduced emotional exhaustion at home by improving sleep quality and increasing psychological detachment from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of this article, we discuss theoretical and practical implications, research limitations, and directions for future research.

A Matter of Health? A 24-Week Daily and Weekly Diary Study on Workplace Bullying Perpetrators' Psychological and Physical Health

Workplace bullying (WB) studies focusing on perpetrators are increasing. Many processes, events, circumstances and individual states are being studied to understand and inhibit what causes some employees to become perpetrators. Using a 24-week diary design and drawing on the Conservation of Resources Theory, we investigated how sleep, physical activity (PA), and being bullied predicted perpetration on a within-level. On a between-level, we controlled for a supervisory position, psychological distress and mental illnesses over 38 employees from Spain and Turkey. Their average age was 38.84 years (SD = 11.75). They were from diverse sectors (15.8% in manufacturing, 15.8% in education, 13.2% in wholesale and retail trade, 13.2% in information and communication, 7.9% in health, 7.9% in other services and 26.3% from other sectors) with diverse professions such as finance manager, psychologist, graphic designer, academic, human resources professional, forensic doctor, IT and Administration head, municipality admin executive, waiter, and sales executives. Data collection was conducted over 24 consecutive work weeks, where only 31 participants were involved in perpetration (final observations = 720). We analyzed the data using multilevel structural equation modeling decomposed into within-and-between-person variance parts. The results indicated that on a within-level, PA as steps taken during the work week and being bullied positively predicted perpetration the same week, while sleep quality did not. By connecting sleep, physical exercise and WB literature, we draw attention to the health condition of perpetrators. Organizations should actively inhibit workplace bullying and be mindful of employees' physical activities at work or commuting to work. Managers should also be attentive to physical fatigue that employees may feel due to their responsibilities in their private lives and allow employees to rest and recuperate to inhibit negative behaviors at work.