title: Work-Family Conflict and Employee Sleep: Evidence from IT Workers in the Work, Family and Health Study.
abstract: Work-family conflict is a threat to healthy sleep behaviors among employees. This study aimed to examine how Work-to-Family Conflict (demands from work that interfere with one's family/personal life; WTFC) and Family-to-Work Conflict (demands from family/personal life that interfere with work; FTWC) are associated with several dimensions of sleep among information technology workers.
  
  
  
  Employees at a U.S. IT firm (n = 799) provided self-reports of sleep sufficiency (feeling rested upon waking), sleep quality, and sleep maintenance insomnia symptoms (waking up in the middle of the night or early morning) in the last month. They also provided a week of actigraphy for nighttime sleep duration, napping, sleep timing, and a novel sleep inconsistency measure. Analyses adjusted for work conditions (job demands, decision authority, schedule control, and family-supportive supervisor behavior), and household and sociodemographic characteristics.
  
  
  
  Employees who experienced higher WTFC reported less sleep sufficiency, poorer sleep quality, and more insomnia symptoms. Higher WTFC also predicted shorter nighttime sleep duration, greater likelihood of napping, and longer nap duration. Furthermore, higher WTFC was linked to greater inconsistency of nighttime sleep duration and sleep clock times, whereas higher FTWC was associated with more rigidity of sleep timing mostly driven by wake time.
  
  
  
  Results highlight the unique associations of WTFC/FTWC with employee sleep independent of other work conditions and household and sociodemographic characteristics. Our novel methodological approach demonstrates differential associations of WTFC and FTWC with inconsistency of sleep timing. Given the strong associations between WTFC and poor sleep, future research should focus on reducing WTFC.
authors: Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.|Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.|Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.|Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
authors: Orfeu M
authors: OM
authors: Buxton
authors: Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
authors: Soomi
authors: S
authors: Lee
authors: Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.|Division of Epidemiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus OH.
authors: Chloe
authors: C
authors: Beverly
authors: Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.|Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Boston, MA.
authors: Lisa F
authors: LF
authors: Berkman
authors: Department of Sociology, The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
authors: Phyllis
authors: P
authors: Moen
authors: Work and Organization Studies, The MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA.
authors: Erin L
authors: EL
authors: Kelly
authors: Department of Psychology, Portland State University, Portland, OR.|Oregon Institute for Occupational Health Sciences, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR.
authors: Leslie B
authors: LB
authors: Hammer
authors: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
authors: David M
authors: DM
authors: Almeida
mesh_terms: D056044:Actigraphy / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005191:Family Characteristics; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology*; D005195:Family Relations / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D048088:Informatics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D013997:Time Factors; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: family-to-work conflict; inconsistency of sleep clock time; nap; sleep duration; work-to-family conflict