Psychosocial work stressors for insomnia: a prospective study on 50-60-year-old adults in the working population.

BACKGROUND

Work-related stressors are often viewed as being a source for disturbed sleep.

PURPOSE

This prospective study aimed to examine whether psychosocial work stressors were related to the development and maintenance of insomnia.

METHOD

From a randomly selected sample from the general population (N = 3,600), 1,873 participants aged 50-60 years old in the workforce filled out a baseline and 1-year follow-up questionnaire. Stepwise logistic regressions were used to investigate whether work stressors were related to the development and maintenance of insomnia over 1 year.

RESULTS

The results showed that among individuals with no insomnia at baseline, high work demands increased the risk of developing insomnia 1 year later (4% of the variance). Among participants with insomnia at baseline, work stressors did not influence the course of insomnia over 1 year. Finally, low influence over decisions, high professional compromise, and high work demands were related to the maintenance of insomnia (9% of the variance).

CONCLUSION

The findings indicate that perceived work stressors are, although rather weakly, associated with the development and maintenance of insomnia. This might have implications for how insomnia is conceptualized as it places work stressors in the model and for how interventions at different stages of insomnia is implemented.