People with mostly sedentary jobs may suffer from sleep problems. (© Prostock-studio – stock.adobe.com)

Sedentary work is reprogramming our sleep habits — and not in a good way

TAMPA, Fla. — If you find yourself struggling to fall asleep at night, your office chair might be partly to blame. A new decade-long study reveals that the increasingly sedentary nature of modern work, along with irregular schedules and technology dependence, may be fundamentally altering how workers sleep — and not for the better.

Modern work has dramatically transformed, with technology reshaping everything from how we complete tasks to when and where we work. While these changes have brought convenience and flexibility, they may also be disrupting our sleep. Today, an estimated 80% of the modern workforce holds highly sedentary jobs, placing a significant portion of workers at increased risk for sleep problems.

This study, published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, reveals concerning patterns about how contemporary job designs affect sleep health among a nationally representative sample of workers. Researchers from multiple institutions, including the University of South Florida and Pennsylvania State University, tracked nearly 1,300 full-time workers (who averaged about 46 hours of work per week) over approximately 10 years to understand potential connections between modern job characteristics and various dimensions of sleep.

Looking beyond the simple metrics of sleep duration and quality that most studies focus on, this research took a more comprehensive approach by examining six different aspects of sleep health: how regularly people sleep, how long it takes them to fall asleep, whether they experience insomnia symptoms, how tired they feel during the day, how often they nap, and their total sleep duration.

“The way we are designing work poses serious, long-term threats to healthy sleep,” says University of South Florida psychologist and lead researcher Claire Smith, in a statement. “Healthy sleep involves more than just getting your eight hours. It’s also falling asleep easily, sleeping through the night and having a consistent sleep schedule. Companies should be aware of the specific sleep risks of their workforce to improve detection and intervention.”

The study identified three distinct “sleep phenotypes” or patterns among workers. The largest group, comprising about 57% of participants, were “good sleepers” who maintained what researchers considered optimally healthy sleep across all measured dimensions. Another quarter of workers fell into the “catch-up sleeper” category – those who relied on frequent naps and longer weekend sleep to compensate for poor weekday sleep. The remaining 18% were classified as “insomnia sleepers,” experiencing multiple sleep problems including difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, and feeling tired during the day.

Most striking was how these sleep patterns persisted over time. Between 60-90% of workers maintained their original sleep phenotype throughout the decade-long study, with insomnia sleepers being the least likely to transition to better sleep patterns. In fact, 90% of workers with insomnia-like symptoms were still experiencing them 10 years later.

The research team identified strong associations between specific aspects of modern job design and these sleep patterns. Workers with more sedentary jobs showed a 37% increase in insomnia symptoms, making them more likely to fall into or remain in the insomnia sleeper category. Those working nontraditional schedules faced a 66% greater risk of becoming “catch-up sleepers” who relied on naps and weekend recovery sleep. While these relationships don’t prove that certain job characteristics directly cause sleep problems, they suggest important connections between how jobs are designed and how people sleep.

Interestingly, computer use at work showed an unexpected relationship with sleep health. Despite common concerns about screen time affecting sleep, increased computer use during work hours was actually associated with better sleep patterns. Researchers hypothesize this might be because daytime computer use doesn’t disrupt circadian rhythms the way evening screen time does, and could potentially help workers complete tasks more efficiently, though more research would be needed to confirm this theory.

Redesigning jobs with sleep health in mind could be key to improving worker well-being. Rather than treating sleep as a one-size-fits-all problem, organizations need to consider it as a dynamic, multifaceted issue that requires targeted interventions based on specific job characteristics and sleep patterns.