Does better sleep set the stage for a physically active and progressive workday? Considerations across the daily cycle of rest, commuting, and work

Abstract

This dissertation explored employee daily experiences through the lens of the resource allocation process whereby employees strive to meet their daily work and non-work demands and incorporate valuable experiences and activities into their workday. Previous research has largely focused on segmented aspects of employee daily lives. However, there is limited research on how employees' daily activities in their work and non-work lives may interrelate in a more dynamic sense. I assess how employees' recovery through nightly sleep quality may set the stage for subsequent engagement in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, and the implications of this intensity of physical activity for job performance, specifically for employees who primarily commute to a physical work location. Using the effort-recovery model, I hypothesized that nightly sleep quality will positively covary with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. I additionally considered a potential moderating influence of commute variability on the relationship between nightly sleep quality and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. I then assessed moderate-to-vigorous physical activity as an antecedent of work goals progress, using the resource-based model of physical activity and job performance as my theoretical basis. My final sample consisted of 81 employees who commute to and from work at least 15 minutes each way. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, which enabled modeling at the within- and between-person level of analysis, I found that daily engagement in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity positively related to daily work goals progress. Furthermore, higher levels of engagement in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity on average influenced higher levels of work goals progress on average. This dissertation contributes to the scientific understanding of the implications of physical activity for work criteria.