Sleep, energy, and work to family spillover: a positive perspective

Drawing on work-family theory, this study was designed to better understand the novel Work, Nonwork, Sleep framework proposed by Crain et al. (2018). More specifically, the primary goal of the current paper was to utilize longitudinal data to better understand the relationships between objective sleep quality/quantity, subjective sleep quality, workplace emotional burnout, and positive work-to-family spillover. A secondary goal was to determine whether there are lasting effects of time on these variables; that is, whether these variables are static and unchanging or if they are capable of changing as time continues. Data from a larger longitudinal study that was designed to examine the effects of a workplace intervention on work, family and health was used. Due to this, only the control portion of the sample was used. The sample (N = 400) consisted of technology employees from a single Fortune 500 company with multiple different sites. Data was collected at four different time points: baseline, 6-months, 12-months, and 18-months. It was predicted that burnout, sleep, would significantly predict positive workto- family spillover. It was also predicted that time would be significantly predicted positive work-to-family spillover in an unknown direction. Additionally, for exploratory purposes, both gender and level of education were added as predictors of positive work-to-family spillover. Utilizing longitudinal hierarchical linear modeling, several interesting findings were discovered. It was found that burnout and time significantly predicted positive work-to-family spillover, but sleep quality and quantity did not. It was also found that both gender and education significantly predicted positive work-to-family spillover.