Daily impaired detachment and short-term effects of impaired sleep quality on next-day commuting near-accidents – an ambulatory diary study

Abstract

This study investigated the short-term effects of daily recovery, that is, impaired psychological detachment from work and various actigraphical indicators of sleep quality, on near-accidents when commuting to work the next morning. Furthermore, the mediating effect of actigraphically assessed sleep quality on the relationship between impaired psychological detachment from work and near-accidents when commuting to work was analysed. Fifty-six full-time employees of a Swiss assurance company participated in the one-week study. Multilevel analyses revealed that impaired detachment was highly related to a decrease in sleep duration. Furthermore, impaired daily recovery processes, such as impaired psychological detachment from work and disturbed sleep quality, were related to commuting near-accidents. Impaired sleep quality mediated the effect of impaired psychological detachment from work on these near-accidents. Our results show that occupational safety interventions should address both impaired psychological detachment from work and sleep quality in order to prevent near accidents when commuting to work.

Practitioner Summary: Commuting accidents occur frequently and have detrimental effects on employees, organisations and society. This study shows that daily lack of recovery, that is, impaired psychological detachment and impaired sleep quality, is related to near-accidents when commuting to work the next morning. Primary prevention of commuting accidents should therefore address daily lack of recovery.

Keywords:

• Impaired psychological detachment
• sleep quality
• actigraphy
• commuting near-accidents
• diary

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.