Technology-Assisted Supplementary Work as an obstacle to psychological detachment and psychophysiological recovery: A within-individual perspective on sleep and sleep-time heart rate variability

In the contemporary landscape, increasing digitalization and pervasive connectivity have been reshaping the boundaries between work and private life (Eichberger et al., 2021; Kühner et al., 2023). Devices such as smartphones and laptops allows tasks to be performed regardless of time or location, allowing working inside the domestic domain (Eichberger et al., 2021; Kühner et al., 2023). Therefore, one risk is to fill over the entire space in a person’s life with work. On the other hand, these new ways of managing work add some loose to each personal time schedule. Technology-Assisted Supplemental Work (TASW) is a central phenomenon in this evolution, defined as the performance of role-prescribed tasks at home after regular work hours with the aid of technological tools, which fit perfectly with what introduced briefly (Fenner & Renn, 2010; Kühner et al., 2023). Working during free time to meet job demands is something that had grown in Europe and, even if it may be perceived as a means for goal achievement and productivity, it puts a significant risk to individual well-being. TASW is operationalized as a job stressor in the framework of the Stressor-Detachment Model, where it directly interferes with recovery processes (Kühner et al., 2023; Sonnentag & Fritz, 2015). The Generalized Unsafety Theory of Stress set up the absence of detachment as liable for keeping the organism in a default stress response, preventing the return to baseline homeostatic levels (J. Brosschot et al., 2018). Failed recovery manifests in the physiological dimension of altered sleep quality and Autonomic Nervous System activity (Geurts & Sonnentag, 2006). Prolonged activation can be reflected in reduced nocturnal heart rate variability (HRV), signaling the parasympathetic nervous system’s capacity to promote biological repair and stress regulation (Thayer et al., 2012). This thesis investigated the day-to-day relationship between TASW, work-related Perseverative Cognitions and sleep, using a one-week ecological momentary assessment design. Objective sleep and physiological data were continuously collected through wearable devices. Multilevel linear mixed-effects models were employed to examine within-person associations between daily fluctuations in TASW, Perseverative Cognitions, subjective Sleep Quality and objective sleep parameters. Daily TASW and work-related Perseverative Cognitions did not significantly predict subsequent sleep outcomes; however, sensitivity analyses conducted on a healthier subsample revealed a significant negative association between Perseverative Cognitions and early night RMSSD, suggesting a link between work-related cognitive activation and nocturnal autonomic recovery.