Insomnia among employees in occupations with critical societal functions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates insomnia among employees in occupations critical to the functioning of society (e.g health, education, welfare and emergency services) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these workers experience higher job pressure and increased risk of infection due to their work. It is crucial to investigate which factors that can contribute to insomnia in these important sectors. METHODS: Data was collected using an online survey administered in June 2020. The questionnaire measured demographic variables, sleep, stress, psychosocial factors and health concerns (i.e worrying about health consequences related to the pandemic). The sample in the present study consisted of 1327 (76% females) employees in organizations with societal critical functions. RESULTS: The employees reported higher levels of insomnia symptoms compared to normative data collected before the pandemic. Health concerns specifically related to COVID-19 had the strongest association to insomnia, followed by work stress. Job demands (i.e workload, time pressure and overtime) had merely a weak association to insomnia. CONCLUSION: Worrying about consequences the pandemic can have on your own health and the health of your family or colleagues have a stronger negative impact on sleep than work pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Impaired sleep can have detrimental effects on performance and health, and a stronger focus on preventing insomnia as a mean of sustaining critical societal functions both during and after the pandemic is warranted. Organizations should consider interventions aimed at reducing health concerns among their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Associations between burnout symptoms and sleep among workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the relations between underlying dimensions of burnout (ie exhaustion, mental distance, cognitive impairment and emotional impairment) and sleep reactivity in occupations that maintain critical societal functions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sleep reactivity refers to the vulnerability of experiencing sleep disturbances during stressful and challenging situations, and manifests as difficulties with falling and staying asleep. Previous research has highlighted the importance investigating psychological factors that may influence or trigger vulnerability to stress induced sleep problems, including factors at work. METHODS: Longitudinal self-report data was collected using an online survey administered to Norwegian workers employed in health care, education, social services, emergency services and other sectors with critical tasks during the COVID-19 pandemic at two different time points three months apart. The sample in the present study (N = 1331) consisted of 76% females and 24% males with a mean age of 44 years. RESULTS: The results showed that work-related exhaustion measured at baseline was the strongest symptom of burnout associated with higher sleep reactivity three months later, followed by emotional impairment. Mental distance and cognitive impairment at work were not associated with sleep reactivity, indicating that these burnout dimensions have less of an impact on sleep than exhaustion and emotional impairment. CONCLUSION: Work-related exhaustion and emotional impairment can lower the individual's tolerance to perceiving events as stressful as well as reinforce the stress response, and contribute to difficulties with initiating and/or maintaining sleep. Workers employed in occupations with critical tasks during the pandemic may be more susceptible to exhaustion, emotional strain and poorer sleep due to increased and prolonged work pressure. Organizational and individual measures that can decrease stress and increase coping should be offered to employees working in high-stress conditions.

Police employees working from home during COVID-19 lockdown: Those with higher score on extraversion miss their colleagues more and are more likely to socialize with colleagues outside work.

There is a general opinion that extraverted people suffer more than introverted people in home-office arrangement and the social distancing regulation imposed by the government during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 pandemic (COVID-19). However, scarce research exists concerning how extraversion is associated with satisfaction with home-office arrangement, to what extent individuals miss their colleagues, level of stress, and whether they meet colleagues outside work during lockdown. An online survey was distributed in six police districts in Norway during late May and beginning of June, right before the most stringent measures for constraining risk of COVID-infection was lifted. 1133 out of 1472 reported that their work-situation was home-office, or combined home-office and physical attendance at work. Contrary to what expected, extraversion was not related to satisfaction with home-office arrangement when controlling for other relevant variables (i.e. stress, home-office only, living alone, age, gender and civilian employment). As hypothesized, those with a higher score on extraversion missed their colleagues more than those with low scores. There was a marginal, although significant, negative association between extraversion and stress, and a significant positive relationship between stress and the extent the respondents missed their colleagues during lockdown, independent of extraversion. The results showed a dose-response relationship between extraversion and meeting colleagues outside the work during lockdown.