Working time organisation and sleep behavior with flexible working hours - survey on individual factors influencing daytime sleepiness - follow-up

Status:

completed 12/2024

Aims:

In the summer of 2020, an online survey entitled "Changes in sleep and work rhythms during corona-related work from home" was carried out at the DGUV site in St. Augustin. The results were published (Hirschwald et al. 2022). The most important changes while working from home were an increased time in bed (as an indirect measure of sleep duration), a decreased frequency of daytime sleepiness, greater satisfaction with the quality of sleep, and the association between circadian rhythm and sleep timing. Later chronotypes showed later times of waking up.

During the survey period in July/August 2020, leisure activities were still restricted due to the pandemic. The sudden shift from working in the office every day to mobile work, the conditions at home varied greatly. Many employees lacked the routine or, in some cases, the equipment for mobile work. In addition to working from home, many families had to look after their children due to the temporary closure of kindergartens and schools.

For this reason, a follow-up survey was carried out at the DGUV site in St Augustin in 2023, with the aim to find out whether the results could be reproduced in a follow-up study with employees who had now become accustomed to working from home.

Activities/Methods:

The follow-up survey in the summer of 2023 used the same questions as in 2020 to determine differences in sleep behavior, daytime sleepiness and satisfaction on days spent in the office vs. days spent working from home. Chronotype, age and nighttime disturbances were questioned the same. The questionnaire was supplemented with questions about the usual number of days spent working from home per week, and about participation in the survey in the summer of 2020 (yes/no/don't know). All employees at the St. Augustin site were able to participate in the 2023 survey, regardless of whether or how often they worked from home.

As in 2020, the survey was conducted online using the platform SoSciSurvey. SoSciSurvey is data protection compliant with the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) and the General Data Protection Regulation (DSVGO, GDPR). The survey was anonymous.

Results:

The results of the survey in 2023 confirmed the trend towards longer sleep duration (time in bed), less daytime sleepiness, more satisfaction with sleep quality and a significant correlation between circadian rhythm and sleep time with working from home. At the DGUV site in St. Augustin, more flexible work hours were introduced after the first survey, enabling employees to start work after 9:30 a.m. This was particularly used by late chronotypes. Furthermore, it can be assumed that the presentation of the results of the first survey has increased knowledge of the relationship between chronotype and appropriate sleep schedules.

In both groups of respondents, the proportion of short sleepers (time in bed < 7 hours) was twice as high on office days than on home office days (29% vs 14%). Commuting time is certainly a factor, with 50% of respondents spending more than 30 minutes to get to and from work. The frequency of daytime sleepiness was lower when working from home than on office days for all chronotype groups in both survey collectives. This difference was especially high in the late chronotypes and in those whose commute was more than 60 minutes each way.

The results contribute to working time models that may increase sleep duration, reduce social jet lag and decrease daytime sleepiness. The latter has been shown to be a safety risk at work.

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