Research pick: Sleepless in IT - "Sleep disorder among IT professionals: the role of psychological distress and work-family conflict"

Research in the International Journal of Management Practice has looked at sleep disorders among information technology professionals with respect to psychological distress and conflicts between one’s working life and family commitments.

The study by an international team from Bangladesh, Chile and Spain used the statistical tool of partial least squares structural equation modelling to analyse data from a structured questionnaire completed by IT professionals. The work sheds new light on how sleep disorders in this sector are affected by workplace factors. The team found that financial insecurity and job pressure contributed significantly to work-family conflict. In addition, they linked the pressures of the job and excessive work contact to psychological distress. All of these factors then contributed to problems for the professionals in terms of their sleep patterns.

Their findings then suggest that countering these detrimental factors might be achieved by improving a professional’s level of job autonomy and the control they have in alleviating their own psychological distress.

Given that financial worries can be a major factor in affecting sleep patterns, employers are advised to take steps to enhance job security. Moreover, they can reduce problems for their workers by reducing work-related communication demands, alleviating job pressures, and increasing job autonomy and control.

The study details point out that work-family conflict contributes around two-thirds of the negative effect, while psychological distress represents about one-quarter of the impact. The findings underline the pivotal role of reducing work-family conflict in improving the sleep quality of IT professionals. The team says that this is the first study to recognise six constructs in addition to financial insecurity as having a detrimental effect on sleep.

Akther, N., Hoque, M.R., Saona, P. and Azad, M.A.K. (2023) ‘Sleep disorder among IT professionals: the role of psychological distress and work-family conflict’, Int. J. Management Practice, Vol. 16, No. 6, pp.708–726.