The interplay of sleep, personality and affective shift in predicting well-being and performance at work

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Stefan Diestel
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 434455443

The goal of the proposed research endeavor is to investigate the relevance of sleep for well-being and performance at work. Thus, we contribute to the relatively novel and growing field of research on the relationship between sleep and well-being and performance at work. More specifically, we investigate potential mediators, in particular affective shifts, and moderators of this relationship such as employee’s chronotype and daily self-control demands. The proposed research endeavor is also of high practical relevance, because recent polls indicate that employees’ sleep is at risk. Employees’ sleep is progressively cut short and many employees suffer from circadian misalignment (that is, misalignment between their biological rhythms and imposed sleep-wake behavior due to their work times). By showing that sleep characteristics are related to important outcomes at work such as employees’ well-being and performance, results of our research offer several potential pathways to foster well-being and work performance.For the realization of the proposed research endeavor, three empirical studies with in total more than 500 participants will be conducted (Study 1: study in controlled setting; Study 2: daily diary study; Study 3: quasi-experimental field study). Different, complementary methodological approaches will be employed, among them self-reports, performance tests, and actigraphy to ambulatory assess objective sleep parameters. In Study 1, the hypothesized affective mechanism relating sleep to performance will be established, whereas Study 2 and Study 3 will focus on important moderators of this mechanism. To ambulatory assess sleep parameters, participants’ sleep will be recorded with ActiGraph® sleep monitors that are worn 24h/day for two weeks on the wrist.Results of these studies will result in presentations on national and international conferences and peer-reviewed publications in international, high-ranked journals. Prof. Dr. Bledow (Singapore Management University) will contribute to this project in the role of Mercator Fellow. His involvement will boost the international visibility of the project and the project’s results.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria
• Partner Organisation: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF)
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Klaus G. Melchers