Undesirable behavior at work, such as extra long breaks or even stealing, is a costly problem. Research has now shown that people who exhibit such behavior fall into such behavior more quickly after just one night of sleep. Undesirable behavior in the workplace often stems from selfish impulses that are not contained by self-control. Everyone has the urge to go home early without informing a supervisor, but most of the time you don't give in to that impulse. And if you do, you usually feel guilty afterwards and make sure it doesn't happen again. A poor night's sleep is known to affect self-control. For this study, the researchers wanted to find out whether poor sleep would actually lead to undesirable behavior in the workplace.
To find out, the researcher sent a text message to a group of 100 working people for ten days, asking them how well they had slept the night before. It was about the quality of sleep, so how those people thought they had slept – and not necessarily the amount of sleep, the researcher emphasizes. In addition, they had to indicate whether and to what extent they exhibited undesirable behaviour. For example, had they taken a longer lunch break that day, or had they lashed out at a colleague?
The analysis showed that the quality of sleep can indeed influence the behavior of the respondents during the working day that follows. People who exhibited undesired behavior at work one day were more likely to exhibit undesired behavior the next day after a poor night's sleep, the study found. Poor sleep thus perpetuates unethical behavior.
Strikingly, some respondents reacted more strongly than average to a bad night's sleep and were much more likely to make mistakes. The difference is in their “moral identity.” This is a psychological measure of how important moral characteristics such as "kindness" or "honesty" are to one's self-image, and how much value one places on being seen by others as a good and moral person. People who give less importance to these moral characteristics are more likely to repeat their missteps the next day after a bad night's sleep, the results of the study show.
