Integrating work and sleep to understand work-life balance among healthcare professionals: A conservation of resources perspective

Abstract

Healthcare professionals sacrifice their sleep for increased patient care. However, this could be detrimental to their selves and the quality of healthcare service. This study used the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR) to examine the integration between the workaholic tendency of healthcare professionals and their daily sleep deprivation to determine the extent of their self-balance. The researchers used a time-lag design to measure the workaholic tendency of healthcare professionals (Total = 422 of 282 doctors and 140 nurses), observed their sleep patterns over one working week, and obtained their ratings of self-life balance. This study revealed that the relationship between workaholism and sleep deprivation and the relation between sleep deprivation and work-self balance was significant for doctors only. However, the mediating role of daily sleep deprivation between workaholism and self-balance was non-significant. This study offers some practical implications by highlighting the positive role of work and the negative role of daily sleep deprivation in maintaining self-balance for healthcare professionals.

Keywords

• Sleep deprivation
• Workaholism
• Work-self balance
• Conservation of resources
• Healthcare