MONDAY, Feb. 10, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Smartphone use at night is associated with increased depletion and diminished work engagement the following morning, according to research published in an upcoming issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
Klodiana Lanaj, Ph.D., from the University of Florida in Gainesville, and colleagues assessed whether smartphone use depletes employees' regulatory resources and impairs their engagement at work the next day in two studies that used experience sampling methodology.
The researchers identified increased depletion the morning following smartphone use for work at night, via its effects on sleep. The indirect effects were in addition to the effects of other electronic devices such as computer, tablet, and television use. There was some indication that job control buffered the negative effects of morning depletion on daily work engagement, with depletion impairing work engagement only for employees with low job control.
"Our findings suggest, however, that late night use of smartphones for work may interfere with sleep, thus leaving employees depleted in the morning and less engaged during the workday," the authors write. "A key premise of this research is the importance of examining within-person variations in depletion and engagement, and it is our hope that this study sparks future research on this vital topic."
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