The Weekly Cycle of Work and Rest: A diary study

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The Weekly Cycle of Work and Rest A diary study

• Fred Zijlstra John Rook
• University of Maastricht
• Department of Psychology
• QinetiQ, Farnborough, UK

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Introduction

• Being active and engaged in activities implies
  investing resources and getting fatigued.
• People need to regulate their effort investment
  in order to be able to complete their working
  day.
• Therefore people take breaks during their working
  day. Effort regulation is also required over
  working days (e.g. week).

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Cycle of work and rest

• After work recovery is needed, normally achieved
  through rest or change of activity.
• Fatigue and recovery are related concepts
  fatigue is the state that results from having
  been exposed to demands, and recovery is the
  process that replenishes the resources again.
• Lack of recovery, or insufficient recovery may
  result in accumulation of fatigue, and eventually
  may lead to ill-health (Meijman Mulder, 1998).

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Effort Recovery, Meijman Mulder, (1998)
Decision latitude
Actual mobilisation Effort psycho- physiological
State
Work aspects job conditions supplies relations
Actual level task demands and working conditions
Work strategies
Bio-psychological hardware and software
Load reactions reversible effects
product
Recovery
If not
Cumulation to
Irreversible effects
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Study background

• Normal pattern is that people are exposed to work
  demands throughout the day, and that after work
  time is meant for recovery.
• The activities people undertake affect the level
  of fatigue, and thus the process of recovery.
• Various developments are believed to affect the
  time available for recovery (i.e. changes in work
  arrange-ments, use of ICT, dual career families),
  people taking work home, sharing and
  renegotiating family responsibilities affect the
  time available for recovery (Roe, et.al, 1995
  Zijlstra, et al., 1996).

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Study background

• Sleep is believed to be very important for
  recovery. A previous study (Zijlstra et al. 2000)
  compared people with high vs low levels of
  fatigue
• fatigue low high
• Hours sleep work day 7.3 6.9
• weekend 8.4 8.3
• Effort rating morning 32.6 51.0
• afternoon 50.4 80.7

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Study aim

• This study aimed to look at to what extent the
  various activities people engage in contribute to
  fatigue (and thus recovery).
• If an activity is increasing fatigue this implies
  that activities are demanding, and if not, they
  apparently are not demanding.
• Another aim was to look at the work rest cycle in
  a normal week.

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hypotheses

• Work related activities are positively associated
  with fatigue, as are household activities.
• Sleep is believed to be negatively associated
  with fatigue.
• Fatigue levels are lower during the weekend, thus
  allowing recovery.
• Low effort, and social activities are negatively
  associated with fatigue.

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Study method

• Diary study with N 46 from three different
  organizations (office workers, 40 men, 65
  married).
• People reported on their activities (pre-coded in
  6 different categories), and time investment,
  time to bed, and time of getting up, during one
  week (Sunday Sunday).
• Rated their experience of activities,
• Included some questionnaires to measure fatigue
  (CIS-20 job demands, sleep quality,

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Results

• Correlations with Fatigue
• job demands -.37
• Total work time -.13
• time household .05
• low effort act. .32
• sports act. -.56
• social act. .19
• total weekly sleep -.08
• Sleep Quality -.62

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Linear Regression

• fatigue as dependent variable, and biographic
  data, work related vars, time for various
  activities, and sleep parameters are used as
  predictors.
• Model 1 with only biographic data not
  significant

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Multiple Linear Regression (N46)

• Variables ß t
• Time work related -.01 -.11
• Work travel .02 1.09
• Time household -.10 -.80
• Time low effort .16 1.35
• Time sports -.39 -2.88
• Time social .14 1.13
• Time sleep .15 1.09
• Sleep quality -.38 -2.55
• Sleep efficiency -.19 -1.37
• R2 .58 Adj R2 .47 plt.05
  plt.01

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Results fatigue curve
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Results

• ANOVA repeated measures
• both the linear and quadratic trend are
  significant.
• Lowest levels of fatigue Sunday highest
  Wednesday.
• People use weekend indeed for recovery.

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Results sleep curve
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Results

• On average people sleep just over 7 hours per
  night
• Sleep Quality highest on Saturday. People also
  feel most refreshed on Saturday. This is most
  beneficial in terms of recovery.
• Sleep Quality is lowest on Monday this actually
  reflects the sleep from night Sunday to Monday.
  Anticipation of work demands..?

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Conclusion

• Combination of work and private life domains does
  account for higher levels of fatigue (work
  weekend).
• Low effort are not really helpful in terms of
  recovery.
• Physical activities are very beneficial for
  recovery.
• Sleep is important, although not the amount of
  sleep, but rather the quality of the sleep.
• Time spent on various activities seems not to be
  essential, presumably it is the subjective
  experience of the various activities that counts.

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Practical recommendations

• Stimulate active engagement in leisure
  activities.
• Stimulate physical activities during lunch
  breaks.
• Install work schedules that help people to
  combine work with family responsibilities (too
  much flexibility can lead to unpredictability and
  may be counterproductive).

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• The fatigue of work well accomplished gets you
  ready for sleep, but during the night, you must
  protect yourself against being awakened by
  stress
• (Selye, 1976, p. 423)