The sound of stress recovery: an exploratory study of self-selected music listening after stress.

BACKGROUND: Empirical support for the notion that music listening is beneficial for stress recovery is inconclusive, potentially due to the methodological diversity with which the effects of music on stress recovery have been investigated. Little is presently known about which recovery activities are chosen by individuals for the purpose of stress recovery, and whether audio feature commonalities exist between different songs that are selected by individuals for the purpose of stress recovery. The current pre-registered study investigated whether audio feature commonalities can be extracted from self-selected songs for the purpose of stress recovery. Furthermore, the present study exploratorily examined the relationship between audio features and participants' desired recovery-related emotions while listening and after listening to self-selected music. METHODS: Participants (N = 470) completed an online survey in which they described what music they would listen to unwind from a hypothetical stressful event. Data analysis was conducted using a split-sample procedure. A k-medoid cluster analysis was conducted to identify audio feature commonalities between self-selected songs. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between audio features and desired recovery emotions. RESULTS: Participants valued music listening as a recovery activity to a similar extent as watching TV, sleeping, or talking to a significant other. Cluster analyses revealed that self-selected songs for the purpose of stress recovery can be grouped into two distinct categories. The two categories of songs shared similarities in key, loudness, speechiness, acousticness, instrumentalness, liveness, musical valence, tempo, duration, and time signature, and were distinguished by danceability, energy, and mode. No audio features were significantly associated with participants' desired recovery emotions. CONCLUSIONS: Although a comprehensive portrait of the relationship between audio features and stress recovery still warrants further research, the present study provides a starting point for future enquiries into the nuanced effects of musical audio features on stress recovery.

Why do people sit? A framework for targeted behavior change.

To improve health and wellbeing, it is crucial that people regularly interrupt their sitting. In this paper, we propose a framework for examining and changing sitting behavior that addresses two key steps in the process towards developing effective interventions. First, we suggest that research should move away from its current focus on sitting time, which is an outcome of behavior. Rather, researchers should focus on stand-to-sit and sit-to-stand transitions, which are discrete units of behavior. Second, drawing on goal hierarchy models, we suggest that people rarely engage in stand-to-sit and sit-to-stand transitions for the purpose of being in a sitting or standing position; rather, we suggest that these transitions are means to higher-order goals (e.g., to complete work tasks, to watch television, to eat dinner). To improve adherence to and effectiveness of sitting behavior interventions, intervention designers should aim to increase the frequency of sit-to-stand (and stand-to-sit) transitions. To achieve this aim, intervention designers should capitalize on the higher-order goals that are typically served by these transitions. We suggest four concrete intervention strategies to increase sit-to-stand transitions in congruence with people's everyday goals. We also describe the implications of our framework for theory and methods in sitting behavior research.

Sitting patterns in cardiovascular disease patients compared with healthy controls and impact of cardiac rehabilitation.

PURPOSE: To identify how and when to intervene in cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients' sedentary behavior, we moved beyond studying total volume of sitting and examined sitting patterns. By analyzing the timing of stand-to-sit and sit-to-stand transitions, we compared sitting patterns (a) between CVD patients and healthy controls, and (b) before and after cardiac rehabilitation (CR). METHODS: One hundered twenty nine CVD patients and 117 age-matched healthy controls continuously wore a tri-axial thigh-worn accelerometer for 8 days (>120 000 posture transitions). CVD patients additionally wore the accelerometer directly and 2 months after CR. RESULTS: With later time of the day, both CVD patients and healthy controls sat down sooner (i.e., shorter standing episode before sitting down; HR = 1.01, 95% CI [1.011, 1.015]) and remained seated longer (HR = 0.97, CI [0.966, 0.970]). After more previous physical activity, both groups sat down later (HR = 0.97, CI [0.959, 0.977]), and patients remained seated longer (HR = 0.96; CI [0.950, 0.974]). Immediately and 2-months following CR, patients sat down later (HRpost-CR  = 0.96, CI [0.945, 0.974]; HRfollow-up  = 0.96, CI [0.948, 0.977]) and stood up sooner (HRpost-CR  = 1.04, CI [1.020, 1.051]; HRfollow-up  = 1.03, CI [1.018, 1.050]). These effects were less pronounced with older age, higher BMI, lower sedentary behavior levels, and/or higher physical activity levels at baseline. CONCLUSION: Cardiac rehabilitation programs could be optimized by targeting CVD patients' sit-to-stand transitions, by focusing on high-risk moments for prolonged sitting (i.e., in evenings and after higher-than-usual physical activity) and attending to the needs of specific patient subgroups.

Music listening and stress recovery in healthy individuals: A systematic review with meta-analysis of experimental studies.

Effective stress recovery is crucial to prevent the long-term consequences of stress exposure. Studies have suggested that listening to music may be beneficial for stress reduction. Thus, music listening stands to be a promising method to promote effective recovery from exposure to daily stressors. Despite this, empirical support for this opinion has been largely equivocal. As such, to clarify the current literature, we conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis of randomized, controlled experimental studies investigating the effects of music listening on stress recovery in healthy individuals. In fourteen experimental studies, participants (N = 706) were first exposed to an acute laboratory stressor, following which they were either exposed to music or a control condition. A random-effects meta-regression with robust variance estimation demonstrated a non-significant cumulative effect of music listening on stress recovery g = 0.15, 95% CI [-0.21, 0.52], t(13) = 0.92, p = 0.374. In healthy individuals, the effects of music listening on stress recovery seemed to vary depending on musical genre, who selects the music, musical tempo, and type of stress recovery outcome. However, considering the significant heterogeneity between the modest number of included studies, no definite conclusions may currently be drawn about the effects of music listening on the short-term stress recovery process of healthy individuals. Suggestions for future research are discussed.

The impact of cognitive work demands on subsequent physical activity behavior.

After cognitively demanding work, individuals tend to be less physically active. However, the psychological mechanisms underlying this effect have not been thoroughly tested. The aim of this article was to experimentally investigate the impact of cognitive work demands on subsequent physical activity behavior. Across two preregistered experiments, participants were exposed to high or low levels of cognitive work demands, operationalized as workload in Experiment 1 and as working-memory load in Experiment 2. In a subsequent choice task, participants made binary consequential choices between leisure nonphysical activities (e.g., drawing) and effortful physical activities (e.g., cycling). Choice alternatives were matched on attractiveness rankings. Additionally, physical endurance performance was measured using a standardized cycling protocol in Experiment 1. In contrast to the hypotheses, after performing work with high cognitive demands, participants were not more likely to choose nonphysical over physical activities nor did they perform significantly worse on the physical endurance task. Exploratory analyses suggest that preexisting preferences for either physical or nonphysical activities explained physical activity behavior above and beyond exposure to cognitively demanding work. These experiments question the impact of cognitively demanding work on subsequent cognitive fatigue and physical activity behavior. Implications for theory, practice, and future directions are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Sedentary work and participation in leisure-time physical activity.

OBJECTIVE: Demanding psychosocial work characteristics, such as high job demands, can have a detrimental impact on leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), with adverse consequences for employee health and well-being. However, the mechanisms and moderators of this crossover effect are still largely unknown. We therefore aimed to identify and test potential mediating and moderating factors from within and outside the work environment. Based on the previous research, we expected job demands to be negatively related to LTPA through fatigue. In addition, we expected that job control and worktime control would attenuate the relationship between job demands and fatigue. Furthermore, we hypothesized that autonomous exercise motivation and spontaneous action planning would attenuate the relationship between fatigue and LTPA. In addition to these cross-sectional hypotheses, we expected the same effects to predict a change in LTPA in the following year. METHODS: To investigate these assumptions, a preregistered longitudinal survey study was conducted among a large sample of Dutch employees in sedentary jobs. Participants reported on the constructs of interest in 2017 and 2018 (N = 1189 and 665 respectively) and the resulting data were analyzed using path analyses. RESULTS: Our cross-sectional analyses confirm a weak indirect, negative association between job demands and LTPA, via fatigue. However, this finding was not observed in our longitudinal analyses and none of the other hypotheses were confirmed. CONCLUSION: This study shows that, among employees with relatively healthy psychosocial work characteristics (i.e., high job control), the evidence for an impact of these work characteristics on participation in LTPA is limited.

The Impact of Cognitive and Physical Effort Exertion on Physical Effort Decisions: A Pilot Experiment.

Research suggests that cognitive fatigue has a negative impact on physical activity participation. However, the mechanisms underlying this effect are yet unclear. Using an effort-based decision-making paradigm, we examined whether individuals weigh physical effort-costs more strongly when they are cognitively or physically fatigued. Twenty university students visited the lab on three occasions. On each visit, participants underwent a manipulation that was designed to either induce cognitive fatigue (i.e., 2-back task), physical fatigue (i.e., handgrip exercise), or served as a control condition (i.e., documentary watching). After the manipulations, participants performed an effort-based decision-making task in which they decided for 125 offers whether they accepted the offer to exert the required level of physical effort to obtain rewards that varied in value. The probability to accept offers declined with increasing effort requirements whereas the general probability to accept offers was not reduced by any of the experimental conditions. As expected, the decline in accepted offers with increasing effort requirements was stronger after prolonged exertion of physical effort compared to the control condition. Unexpectedly, this effect was not found after exerting cognitive effort, and exploratory analyses revealed that the impact of physical effort exertion on physical effort-based decisions was stronger than that of cognitive effort exertion. These findings suggest that people weight future physical effort-costs more strongly after exerting physical effort, whereas we could not find any evidence for this after exerting cognitive effort. We discuss multiple explanations for this discrepancy, and outline possibilities for future research.

Second-order motor planning difficulties in children with developmental coordination disorder.

The second-order motor planning ability of children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) has often been studied using tasks that require judgements of end-state comfort (ESC). In these studies, children may have chosen to prioritize other aspects of performance (e.g., a comfortable start-posture) over ESC while still being able to complete the goal of the task. This is a limitation that is inherent to previously used ESC paradigms. To avoid this in the present study, 52 children with and without DCD (aged 5-12 years) completed a task that requires second-order motor planning for its successful completion. In the hexagonal knob task, children were instructed to grasp and rotate a hexagonal knob. The rotation angle varied in size: 60°, 120°, 180°, and 240° rotations. Both the 180° and 240° rotation conditions required an uncomfortable starting posture for successful task completion. Results showed that children with DCD were less likely to adjust their initial grip in anticipation of the required rotation angle, resulting in more task failures compared with typically developing (TD) children. Based on this finding we conclude that children with DCD experience genuine second-order motor planning difficulties. Analysis of temporal outcomes, showed that initial reaction time increased with rotation angle, but this was less pronounced for children with DCD than for TD children. There were no between group differences in timing of subsequent events. These results suggest that the difficulties of children with DCD are related to the initial planning process, that is, before the start of the movement.

'Intelligent' lockdown, intelligent effects? Results from a survey on gender (in)equality in paid work, the division of childcare and household work, and quality of life among parents in the Netherlands during the Covid-19 lockdown.

OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic is more than a public health crisis. Lockdown measures have substantial societal effects, including a significant impact on parents with (young) children. Given the existence of persistent gender inequality prior to the pandemic, particularly among parents, it is crucial to study the societal impact of COVID-19 from a gender perspective. The objective of this paper is to use representative survey data gathered among Dutch parents in April 2020 to explore differences between mothers and fathers in three areas: paid work, the division of childcare and household tasks, and three dimensions of quality of life (leisure, work-life balance, relationship dynamics). Additionally, we explore whether changes take place in these dimensions by comparing the situation prior to the lockdown with the situation during the lockdown. METHOD: We use descriptive methods (crosstabulations) supported by multivariate modelling (linear regression modelling for continuous outcomes; linear probability modelling (LPM) for binary outcomes (0/1 outcomes); and multinomial logits for multinomial outcomes) in a cross-sectional survey design. RESULTS: Results show that the way in which parents were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic reflects a complex gendered reality. Mothers work in essential occupations more often than fathers, report more adjustments of the times at which they work, and experience both more and less work pressure in comparison to before the lockdown. Moreover, mothers continue to do more childcare and household work than fathers, but some fathers report taking on greater shares of childcare and housework during the lockdown in comparison to before. Mothers also report a larger decline in leisure time than fathers. We find no gender differences in the propensity to work from home, in perceived work-life balance, or in relationship dynamics. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, we find that gender inequality in paid work, the division of childcare and household work, and the quality of life are evident during the first lockdown period. Specifically, we find evidence of an increase in gender inequality in relation to paid work and quality of life when comparing the situation prior to and during the lockdown, as well as a decrease in gender inequality in the division of childcare and household work. We conclude that the unique situation created by restrictive lockdown measures magnifies some gender inequalities while lessening others. DISCUSSION: The insights we provide offer key comparative evidence based on a representative, probability-based sample for understanding the broader impact of lockdown measures as we move forward in the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the limitations in this study is the cross-sectional design. Further study, in the form of a longitudinal design, will be crucial in investigating the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender inequality.

Temporal dynamics of sitting behavior at work.

Sitting for prolonged periods of time impairs people's health. Prior research has mainly investigated sitting behavior on an aggregate level, for example, by analyzing total sitting time per day. By contrast, taking a dynamic approach, here we conceptualize sitting behavior as a continuous chain of sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit transitions. We use multilevel time-to-event analysis to analyze the timing of these transitions. We analyze ∼30,000 objectively measured posture transitions from 156 people during work time. Results indicate that the temporal dynamics of sit-to-stand transitions differ from stand-to-sit transitions, and that people are quicker to switch postures later in the workday, and quicker to stand up after having been more active in the recent hours. We found no evidence for associations with physical fitness. Altogether, these findings provide insights into the origins of people's stand-up and sit-down decisions, show that sitting behavior is fundamentally different from exercise behavior, and provide pointers for the development of interventions.

Perseverative Cognition as an Explanatory Mechanism in the Relation Between Job Demands and Sleep Quality.

PURPOSE: The aim of this longitudinal three-wave study was to examine (i) reciprocal associations among job demands, work-related perseverative cognition (PC), and sleep quality; (ii) PC as a mediator in-between job demands and sleep quality; and (iii) continuous high job demands in relation to sleep quality and work-related PC over time. METHOD: A representative sample of the Swedish working population was approached in 2010, 2012, and 2014, and 2316 respondents were included in this longitudinal full-panel survey study. Structural equation modelling was performed to analyse the temporal relations between job demands, work-related PC, and sleep quality. Additionally, a subsample (N = 1149) consisting of individuals who reported the same level of exposure to job demands during all three waves (i.e. stable high, stable moderate, or stable low job demands) was examined in relation to PC and sleep quality over time. RESULTS: Analyses showed that job demands, PC, and poor sleep quality were positively and reciprocally related. Work-related PC mediated the normal and reversed, direct across-wave relations between job demands and sleep quality. Individuals with continuous high job demands reported significantly lower sleep quality and higher work-related PC, compared to individuals with continuous moderate/low job demands. CONCLUSION: This study substantiated reciprocal relations between job demands, work-related PC, and sleep quality and supported work-related PC as an underlying mechanism of the reciprocal job demands-sleep relationship. Moreover, this study showed that chronically high job demands are a risk factor for low sleep quality.

The effect on sleep of being on-call: an experimental field study.

The aim of this study was to: (i) gain more insight into the relationship between being on-call and sleep and (ii) investigate the role of stress in this relationship. Data were collected by means of an experimental field study with a within-subject design (two conditions, random order). Ninety-six students participated during two consecutive nights: a reference night and a simulated on-call night without an actual call. Participants were told they could be called at any time during the on-call night. In the case of a call, participants had to perform online tasks for approximately 30 min. Self-reported sleep quality and the extent to which participants experienced stress during the on-call period were assessed by means of short questionnaires. Actigraphy was used to obtain objective sleep measures. Results for actigraphy data revealed no significant within-person differences between conditions. However, participants reported longer sleep onset latencies, more awakenings and more wake after sleep onset during the on-call night than during the reference night. They also reported more sleep problems and a lower overall sleep quality, and felt less recuperated after the on-call night. Perceived stress moderated the relationship between being on-call, on one hand, and the number of awakenings, wake after sleep onset, sleep problems and overall sleep quality, on the other hand. Results show that, even in the absence of an actual call, sleep during on-call nights is of lower quality and has less restorative value - especially when being on-call is experienced as stressful.

Stress, fatigue, and sleep quality leading up to and following a stressful life event.

This study aims to examine (a) the time course of stress, fatigue, and sleep quality among PhD students awaiting a stressful event and (b) whether daily anticipation of this event influences day-level stress, fatigue, and sleep quality. Forty-four PhD students completed evening and morning questionnaires on eight days from 1 month before their dissertation defense until one month thereafter. Results showed increased stress leading up to the defense, while fatigue and sleep quality remained unchanged. Comparing the night before the defense with the night after, stress rapidly decreased, whereas fatigue and sleep quality increased. Following the defense, stress and sleep quality remained stable, whereas fatigue declined. Stress 1 month before the defense was higher than 1 month thereafter. Regarding day-level relations, stress was adversely affected by negative anticipation and favorably by positive outcome expectancy, whereas positive anticipation had no influence. Positive outcome expectancy was an important predictor of improved sleep quality. We conclude that stress may be elevated long before a stressful event takes place but that one can recover rather quickly from temporary stress. Positive outcome expectancy of a stressful event may be an important predictor of reduced day-level stress and improved day-level sleep quality leading up to a stressful event.

Day-to-day relations between stress and sleep and the mediating role of perseverative cognition.

OBJECTIVE: The goals of this longitudinal diary-based study were to shed light on the day-level relationship between stress and subsequent sleep, and to examine whether perseverative cognition is a mediating factor in this relation. METHODS: A total of 44 Dutch PhD students were followed during a two-month period, from one month before their public thesis defense (ie, a stressful life event), until one month thereafter. Participants completed short evening and morning questionnaires on eight occasions (in anticipation of and following the defense), including questions about day-level stress, sleep quality, and perseverative cognition. Objective sleep parameters were collected with the SenseWear Pro Armband. RESULTS: Multilevel analysis was used to analyze daily observations nested within individuals. Analyses revealed that day-level stress was not directly related to subsequent subjective sleep indicators or to subsequent objective sleep indicators. Day-level stress was significantly associated with day-level perseverative cognition, and daily variations in perseverative cognition were significantly related to several day-level objective sleep parameters (sleep efficiency, marginally to number of awakenings, and wake after sleep onset), and to several day-level subjective sleep parameters (sleep quality, number of awakenings, wake after sleep onset). Finally, mediation analyses using path analysis suggested that, on the day level, perseverative cognition functions as a mediator between stress and several sleep parameters, namely, subjective sleep quality, objective sleep efficiency, and subjective wake after sleep onset. CONCLUSION: Perseverative cognition is a promising explanatory mechanism linking day-level stress to subjective and objective measures of sleep.

Effects of new ways of working on work hours and work location, health and job-related outcomes.

New ways of working (NWW) is a type of work organization that is characterized by temporal and spatial flexibility, often combined with extensive use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and performance-based management. In a three-wave intervention study, we examined the effects of NWW on both the organization of work (changes in control over time and place of work; working hours and work location; and other key job characteristics), and on employees' outcomes (work-nonwork balance; health and well-being; and job-related outcomes). We applied a quasi-experimental design within a large Dutch financial company (N = 2,912). We studied an intervention group (n = 2,391) and made comparisons with a reference group (n = 521). There were three study waves: (i) one/two months before, and (ii) 4 months and (iii) 10 months after implementation of NWW. Repeated measures analyses of covariance (involving 361 participants from the intervention group and 80 participants from the reference group) showed a large and significant shift from hours worked at the office to hours worked at home after implementation of NWW. Accordingly, commuting time was reduced. Employees remained working on week days and during day time. Psychosocial work-characteristics, work-nonwork balance, stress, fatigue, and job-related outcomes remained favourable and largely unaffected, but the health score in the intervention group decreased (medium effect). These findings suggest that the implementation of NWW does not necessarily lead to changes in psychosocial work characteristics, well-being or job-related outcomes.

Work time control, sleep & accident risk: A prospective cohort study.

We examined whether the beneficial impact of work time control (WTC) on sleep leads to lower accident risk, using data from a nationally representative survey conducted in Sweden. Logistic regressions examined WTC in 2010 and 2012 as predictors of accidents occurring in the subsequent 2 years (N = 4840 and 4337, respectively). Sleep disturbance and frequency of short sleeps in 2012 were examined as potential mediators of the associations between WTC in 2010 and subsequent accidents as reported in 2014 (N = 3636). All analyses adjusted for age, sex, education, occupational category, weekly work hours, shift work status, job control and perceived accident risk at work. In both waves, overall WTC was inversely associated with accidents (p = 0.048 and p = 0.038, respectively). Analyses of the sub-dimensions of WTC indicated that Control over Daily Hours (influence over start and finish times, and over length of shift) did not predict accidents in either wave, while Control over Time-off (CoT; influence over taking breaks, running private errands during work and taking paid leave) predicted fewer accidents in both waves (p = 0.013 and p = 0.010). Sleep disturbance in 2012 mediated associations between WTC/CoT in 2010 and accidents in 2014, although effects' sizes were small (effectWTC = -0.006, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -0.018 to -0.001; effectCoT = -0.009, 95%CI = -0.022 to -0.001; unstandardized coefficients), with the indirect effects of sleep disturbance accounting for less than 5% of the total direct and indirect effects. Frequency of short sleeps was not a significant mediator. WTC reduces the risk of subsequently being involved in an accident, although sleep may not be a strong component of the mechanism underlying this association.

The Relationship of On-Call Work with Fatigue, Work-Home Interference, and Perceived Performance Difficulties.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the relationship between on-call duty exposure (active and total on-call hours a month, number of calls per duty) and employees' experiences of being on-call (stress due to unpredictability, ability to relax during inactive on-call periods, restrictions during on-call duties, on-call work demands, and satisfaction with compensation for on-call duties) on the one hand and fatigue, strain-based and time-based work-home interference (WHI), and perceived on-call performance difficulties (PPD) on the other hand. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey data were collected among a large heterogeneous sample of Dutch employees (N = 5437). The final sample consisted of 157 on-call workers (23-69 years, 71% males). Data were analyzed by means of hierarchical regression analyses (controlling for age and job characteristics). RESULTS: Differences in on-call work exposure were not systematically related to fatigue, WHI, and PPD (all p's >0.50). The experience of being on-call explained a medium proportion of the variation in fatigue and strain-based WHI and a medium to large proportion of the variation in time-based WHI and PPD over and above the control variables. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that it is employees' experience of being on-call, especially the experience of stress due to the unpredictability, rather than the amount of exposure, that is related to fatigue, WHI, and perceived on-call performance difficulties.

Bidirectional relations between work-related stress, sleep quality and perseverative cognition.

OBJECTIVE: In this longitudinal two-wave study, bidirectional relations between work-related stress and sleep quality were examined. Moreover, it was investigated whether perseverative cognition is a potential underlying mechanism in this association, related to both work-related stress and sleep quality. METHODS: A randomly selected sample of Dutch employees received an online survey in 2012 and 2013. Of all invited employees, 877 participated in both waves. Structural equation modeling was performed to analyze the data. RESULTS: We found evidence for reversed relations between work-related stress and sleep quality. Specifically, when controlling for perseverative cognition, work-related stress was not directly related to subsequent sleep quality, but low sleep quality was associated with an increase in work-related stress over time. Moreover, negative bidirectional associations over time were found between perseverative cognition and sleep quality, and positive bidirectional associations were found between work-related stress and perseverative cognition. Lastly, a mediation analysis showed that perseverative cognition fully mediated the relationship between work-related stress and sleep quality. CONCLUSION: The study findings suggest that perseverative cognition could be an important underlying mechanism in the association between work-related stress and sleep quality. The bidirectionality of the studied relationships could be an indication of a vicious cycle, in which work-related stress, perseverative cognition, and sleep quality mutually influence each other over time.

Worktime control access, need and use in relation to work-home interference, fatigue, and job motivation.

OBJECTIVE: Worktime control (WTC) has been suggested as a tool to reduce employees' work-home interference and fatigue and improve job motivation. The purpose of this study was twofold: (i) to examine the prevalence of employees' need for, access to, and use of WTC, as well as the incongruence between need for and access to WTC (ie, mismatch); and (ii) to examine the associations of this mismatch and the use of WTC with employees' work-home interference (WHI), fatigue and job motivation. METHODS: Questionnaire data were collected among a large (N=2420) quasi-representative sample of Dutch employees. The prevalence of WTC need, access, use, and mismatch was assessed by means of descriptive statistics. Associations with employees' outcomes were assessed by analyses of covariance. RESULTS: The need for WTC was highly prevalent. For many employees, we observed a negative mismatch between access to and need for WTC (ie, access

Work Stressors, Perseverative Cognition and Objective Sleep Quality: A Longitudinal Study among Dutch Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) Pilots.

Objectives: This longitudinal study examined the associations between work stressors, perseverative cognition and subjective and objective sleep quality. We hypothesized work stressors to be associated with (i) poor nocturnal sleep quality and (ii) higher levels of perseverative cognition during a free evening. We further hypothesized (iii) perseverative cognition to be associated with poor nocturnal sleep quality and (iv) the association between work stressors and sleep quality to be mediated by perseverative cognition. Methods: The participants were 24 pilots working for the Dutch Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS). They completed six questionnaires: at the end of three consecutive day shifts and each morning following the shifts. The questionnaires addressed work stressors (workload, distressing shifts and work-related conflicts), subjective sleep quality and perseverative cognition. Participants wore actigraphs to assess sleep onset latency, total sleep time and number of awakenings. Results: Correlation analysis revealed that (i) distressing shifts were related to delayed sleep onset (r = 0.50, p = 0.026) and that workload was related to impaired sleep quality (e.g., subjective sleep quality: r = -0.42, p = 0.044). Moreover, (ii) distressing shifts were positively related to perseverative cognition (r = 0.62, p = 0.002), (iii) perseverative cognition delayed sleep onset (r = 0.74, p < 0.001) and (iv) mediated the association between distressing shifts and sleep onset latency. Conclusions: Perseverative cognition may be an explanatory mechanism in the association between work stressors and poor sleep.