Protect Your Sleep When Work is Calling: How Work-Related Smartphone Use During Non-Work Time and Sleep Quality Impact Next-Day Self-Control Processes at Work

Anne-Kathrin Konze,Wladislaw Rivkin,Lilian Gombert,Klaus-Helmut Schmidt

doi:10.3390/ijerph15081757

Abstract

In view of the rapid development of information and communication technologies, the present study sheds light on how work-related smartphone use during non-work time affects employees’ subsequent working day. Specifically, we examine work-related smartphone use and sleep quality as moderators of next-day self-control processes at work. Theorizing that work-related smartphone use and self-control demands deplete a common limited regulatory resource, we suggest a strengthening two-way interaction between work-related smartphone use during non-work time and next-day self-control demands at work in predicting employees’ ego depletion at work. Moreover, in a three-way interaction, we analyze whether this interaction depends on employees’ sleep quality, assuming that when intensive work-related smartphone use is followed by high-quality sleep, the taxed regulatory resource can replenish overnight. Results from our diary study covering 10 working days (n = 63) indicate that after evenings with high work-related smartphone use, employees experience disproportionate levels of ego depletion when dealing with self-control demands at work. Sleep quality, however, attenuates this interaction. In cases of high sleep quality, next-day self-control processes at work are no longer affected by work-related smartphone use. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for employees and employers regarding work-related smartphone use and the relevance of sleep in replenishing drained resources.

Highlights

Today’s working life is characterized by global competition, increasing service orientation, and the need to adjust quickly to changing markets [1]
Integrating previous findings (a) that the use of limited resources in one domain reduces the availability of these resources in the other domain, and (b) that multiple demands on self-control can overtax the limited resource and thereby reinforce each other’s impact on resulting ego depletion [8,9], we propose that work-related smartphone use during non-work time interacts with next-day self-control demands at work in predicting employees’ experience of ego depletion at work
Supposing that both demands deplete a common limited regulatory resource, we propose that work-related smartphone use at home (Day 1, cf. to Figure 1) strengthens the adverse effects of next-day self-control demands at work (Day 2) on next-day ego depletion at work (Day 2)

Summary

Introduction

Today’s working life is characterized by global competition, increasing service orientation, and the need to adjust quickly to changing markets [1]. These demands cannot be met by automated and rigid patterns of behavior. According to the Limited Strength Model of Self-Control [3], all acts of self-control draw on a common regulatory resource, which is limited and gets depleted by use. The depletion of this resource, called ego depletion, can temporarily impede subsequent self-control efforts, and is characterized by feelings of low willpower and cognitive exhaustion [4].

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Results

Conclusion