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A Study on the Relationship between Calling and Sleep Quality in Researchers
Wang Yongyue, Yue Fengkai, Xie Jiangpei
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (2) : 379-390.
PDF(1173 KB)
PDF(1173 KB)
A Study on the Relationship between Calling and Sleep Quality in Researchers
Organizations always strive to prioritize enhancing the calling of scientific researchers, even if it sometimes require researchers to sacrifice their own health. For researchers who view their profession as a calling, the process of recovering from health sacrifices can be extremely challenging. Pursuing career goals may lead those with a strong calling to overlook mental and physical health issues, such as excessive anxiety and poor sleep quality. However, previous research on calling has mainly focused on work-related outcomes (e.g., performance), neglecting its potential impact on researchers’ mental and physical health. Therefore, exploring the impact of the calling on researchers’ sleep quality and its intervention mechanisms is of significant theoretical and practical value.
This study aimed to investigate the potential causes of poor sleep quality among researchers with a strong calling and identify ways to mitigate the negative effects of this phenomenon. To achieve this objective, the study established a multi-level moderated mediation model based on the basic psychological needs theory (BPNT) and the work as calling theory (WCT). The model was designed to clarify the mediating role of fear of missing out (FOMO) and the moderating roles of individual mindfulness and leader mindfulness. The study employed a three-wave questionnaire survey and ultimately collected 400 valid questionnaires from 88 research teams. It used structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses, which proposed that the calling among researchers would impair their sleep quality by triggering FOMO. Additionally, the study examined whether the relation between calling and FOMO would differ based on the levels of leader and individual mindfulness levels.
The results of this study provide valuable insights into the relations among calling, mindfulness, FOMO, and sleep quality. Specifically, the results indicate that: (1) The career calling of scientific researchers was significantly and positively correlated with FOMO; FOMO was significantly and negatively correlated with sleep quality; and FOMO mediated the relation between the calling and sleep quality. (2) Leader mindfulness—identified as a critical factor—moderated the relation between the calling and FOMO, as well as the indirect relation between the calling and sleep quality. In contrast, individual mindfulness played an insignificant role in these relationships. These findings suggest that leader mindfulness is an important contextual factor for reducing the negative impact of the calling.
This study makes several important theoretical contributions. First, it deepens our understanding of researchers’ calling by shifting the focus of the research from the positive effects of the calling to its negative impacts, specifically its influence on researchers’ sleep quality. Second, it expands our understanding of FOMO by introducing it as a novel theoretical mechanism to explain the relation between the calling and researchers’ sleep quality. Third, it demonstrates the distinct roles of leader mindfulness and individual mindfulness in the mechanism through which the calling affects FOMO, thereby providing a more comprehensive theoretical explanation of the complex process by which the calling impacts researchers’ sleep quality.
These conclusions also offer practical implications for the management of researchers in organizations. First, while cultivating the calling among researchers, organizations should consider their research needs and mental states. Such efforts aim to prevent the calling from becoming a detrimental factor that impairs researchers’ sleep quality and to guide its positive role. Second, organizations should regularly provide professional psychological counseling services. Such services can help researchers acquire effective coping skills for FOMO, thereby interrupting the negative pathway of FOMO and improving researchers’ sleep quality and work performance. Third, organizations should strengthen mindfulness training for leaders, as this can help researchers balance work and life through mindfulness-based management strategies.
calling / sleep quality / fear of missing out / leader mindfulness / employee mindfulness / researchers
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错失焦虑作为一种普遍存在于职场的负性心理, 已逐渐引起管理领域学者的关注。现有关于职场错失焦虑的研究主要基于西方情境探讨个体对于职场关系和工作信息错失产生的焦虑。然而, 在中国“差序格局” “人情与面子” “潜规则”的文化情境中, 职场错失焦虑还包含着本土特征。因此, 本研究考虑基于中国文化情境, 探究职场错失焦虑的结构测量、多维效应与形成机制。首先, 阐明职场错失焦虑的本土构念, 并在此基础上开发测量量表; 其次, 基于工作要求-资源模型探究职场错失焦虑对个体工作领域、家庭领域与健康方面的作用结果; 最后, 结合社会比较理论和不确定管理理论, 探究上行社会比较对职场错失焦虑的作用机制, 以及组织层面和个体层面对职场错失焦虑的干预机制。本研究将增进学术界对职场错失焦虑心理的本土洞见, 并进一步指导个体和组织如何有效地识别潜在的职场错失焦虑, 以及如何对其进行干预。
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The objectives of this study is to examine the effect of leader sleep devaluation (which we define as leader behaviors that signal to employees that sleep should be sacrificed for work) on the sleep and unethical behavior of subordinates.Across 2 studies (with 3 total samples of participants), we use a cross-sectional survey, a diary study completed by employees, and a diary study completed by employees and their leaders.Study 1 - a convenience sample of working adults in Italy, including 575 subordinates nested under 140 leaders. Study 2A - 135 working adults recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Study 2B - 127 employee-supervisor dyads recruited from the Study Response project.Survey measures of leader behaviors, subordinates sleep, and subordinate unethical behavior.Sleep devaluing leader behavior has harmful effects on employee sleep, and that these effects occur above and beyond the effects of abusive supervision and other alternative explanations. Subordinate sleep quality has a mediating role between leader sleep devaluation and subordinate unethical behavior. Effects for sleep quantity were inconsistent.Leaders can adversely influence the sleep and work experience of their subordinates. Specifically, sleep devaluing leader behavior undermines subordinate sleep, which in turn is associated with higher levels of subordinate unethical behavior.Copyright © 2019 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Previous research has found that very few, if any, psychological or physiological processes are universally beneficial. Instead, positive phenomena tend to follow a non-monotonic or inverted U-shaped trajectory where their typically positive effects eventually turn negative. This review investigates mindfulness-related processes for signs of non-monotonicity. A number of mindfulness-related processes-including, mindful attention (observing awareness, interoception), mindfulness qualities, mindful emotion regulation (prefrontal control, decentering, exposure, acceptance), and meditation practice-show signs of non-monotonicity, boundary conditions, or negative effects under certain conditions. A research agenda that investigates the possibility of mindfulness as non-monotonic may be able to provide an explanatory framework for the mix of positive, null, and negative effects that could maximize the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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While a positive view of calling has been ubiquitous since its introduction into the literature over two decades ago, research remains unsettled about the extent to which it contributes to various aspects of the good life: an optimal way of living well via worthwhile endeavors. Further, scholars have identified two conceptual types of calling, marked by internal versus external foci; yet their differential impact on outcomes indicative of the good life, such as eudaimonic and hedonic well-being (characterized by the experience of purpose and meaning versus pleasure and happiness, respectively), is unknown. Through a meta-analysis of 201 studies, we provide the first systematic review focused on these two fundamental theoretical issues in the calling literature: how strongly related callings are to outcomes in the domains of work and life and which type of calling (internally or externally focused) more strongly predicts these outcomes, if either. We find that callings more strongly relate to outcomes indicative of the good life than recently argued. We further find that callings are more strongly linked to work than to life outcomes and to eudaimonic than to hedonic outcomes. The two types of calling converge in being associated with many similar outcomes, but they show some divergence: internally focused callings are more positively related to hedonic outcomes and less positively related to eudaimonic outcomes, relative to externally focused callings. This finding supports a view of callings as hierarchically structured, with a higher-order calling factor composed of two correlated yet distinct lower-order calling types. Integrating our meta-analytic findings with relevant literatures, we propose a theoretical model that addresses psychological and social need fulfillment through which different types of callings contribute to the good life.
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Perceiving work as a calling has been positioned as a key pathway to enhancing work-related well-being. However, no formal theory exists attempting to explain predictors and outcomes of living a calling at work. To address this important gap, this article introduces a theoretical, empirically testable model of work as a calling - the Work as Calling Theory (WCT) - that is suitable for the contemporary world of work. Drawing from research and theory in counseling, vocational, multicultural, and industrial-organizational psychology, as well as dozens of quantitative and qualitative studies on calling, the WCT is presented in three parts: (a) predictors of living a calling, (b) variables that moderate and mediate the relation of perceiving a calling to living a calling, and (c) positive (job satisfaction, job performance) and potentially negative (burnout, workaholism, exploitation) outcomes that result from living a calling. Finally, practical implications are suggested for counselors and managers, who respectively may seek to help clients and employees live a calling. (PsycINFO Database Record(c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
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By and large, research in organizational behavior and psychology has emphasized that mindfulness should have positive implications for employee well-being and performance, largely through benefits to self-control. Although some have noted that mindfulness could also have a "dark side," researchers have yet to examine the potential costs of being mindful at work. Building on prior studies that have found that mindfulness leads to lower levels of surface acting, we investigate the possibility that when mindful employees engage in surface acting, it may contribute to greater self-control depletion, which in turn, results in undesirable performance outcomes. Using six field studies, we collected data at multiple points in time from both employees and their supervisors to test our theoretical model. In two Study 1 samples, we found that mindfulness moderated the relationship between surface acting and self-control depletion, such that this relationship was stronger for more mindful individuals. In four Study 2 samples, we replicated our Study 1 results and found that the mediated relationship between surface acting and five dimensions of employee performance via self-control depletion is moderated by mindfulness at the first stage, such that this mediated relationship is stronger for more mindful individuals. We discuss the implications of this work for future investigations of mindfulness, self-control, emotional labor, and performance outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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Currently, evidence on the associations between long working hours and sleep disturbances among the Chinese workers is lacking. This study aimed at explore the possible associations and underlying mechanisms between long working hours and sleep disturbances among Chinese government employees. A total of 16206 government employees were recruited at baseline and 11806 of which were available at follow-up. A digital self-reported questionnaire platform was established to collect information. Sleep disturbances were assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), long working hours was assessed by self-report. Binary logistic regression analysis and path analysis were conducted. The results showed that long working hours at baseline were significantly associated with poor sleep quality at follow up (OR: 1.29, 95% CI: 1.12 - 1.47). Long working hours at baseline were significantly associated with some specific sleep disturbance components at follow-up including long sleep latency (OR = 1.17, 95%CI: 1.01 - 1.38), as well as short sleep duration (OR = 1.26, 95%CI: 1.12 - 1.43), impairment of sleep efficiency (OR = 1.27, 95%CI: 1.01 - 1.26), sleep disturbances (OR: 1.39, 95%CI: 1.02 - 1.95) and daytime dysfunction (OR: 1.27, 95%CI: 1.08 - 1.49). Work stress and job dissatisfaction mediated the relationship between long working hours and sleep disturbances. Continued overtime work should be recognized as a risk factor for the development of sleep disturbances among Chinese government employees. Work stress and work dissatisfaction mediated the relationship between long working hours and sleep disturbances. Effective interventions should be provided to employees who have experienced long working hours.Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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To assess the impact of sleep disturbances on work performance/productivity.Employees (N = 4188) at four US corporations were surveyed about sleep patterns and completed the Work Limitations Questionnaire. Respondents were classified into four categories: insomnia, insufficient sleep syndrome, at-risk, and good sleep. Employer costs related to productivity changes were estimated through the Work Limitations Questionnaire. Performance/productivity, safety, and treatment measures were compared using a one-way analysis of variance model.Compared with at-risk and good-sleep groups, insomnia and insufficient sleep syndrome groups had significantly worse productivity, performance, and safety outcomes. The insomnia group had the highest rate of sleep medication use. The other groups were more likely to use nonmedication treatments. Fatigue-related productivity losses were estimated to cost $1967/employee annually.Sleep disturbances contribute to decreased employee productivity at a high cost to employers.
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\n Working in a domain to which one feels called has been heralded as a source of deep meaning and fulfilment, but not everyone is able to pursue their calling through paid employment. Current thinking positions such abandoned occupational callings as a source of regret, stress and disappointment but, by focusing on the perspectives of those still in mid-career, extant research has overlooked the potential for a calling to re-emerge in late adulthood. Drawing on life history narratives from retired individuals who felt called to music at an early age but did not pursue a musical career, we contribute to the corpus of work on unanswered callings by proposing the construct of\n latent callings\n to explain how callings may be held in the individual’s identity set primed to re-emerge, and reveal the mutable\n calling identity scripts\n that re-awaken the potential to live out a calling later in life. Our research shows how latent callings may be resumed via\n accommodation, deferred\n and\n emergent pathways\n and highlights the potential for a previously unanswered calling to become a source of social connection, deep happiness and enjoyment late in life.\n
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During the past two decades, mindfulness meditation has gone from being a fringe topic of scientific investigation to being an occasional replacement for psychotherapy, tool of corporate well-being, widely implemented educational practice, and "key to building more resilient soldiers." Yet the mindfulness movement and empirical evidence supporting it have not gone without criticism. Misinformation and poor methodology associated with past studies of mindfulness may lead public consumers to be harmed, misled, and disappointed. Addressing such concerns, the present article discusses the difficulties of defining mindfulness, delineates the proper scope of research into mindfulness practices, and explicates crucial methodological issues for interpreting results from investigations of mindfulness. For doing so, the authors draw on their diverse areas of expertise to review the present state of mindfulness research, comprehensively summarizing what we do and do not know, while providing a prescriptive agenda for contemplative science, with a particular focus on assessment, mindfulness training, possible adverse effects, and intersection with brain imaging. Our goals are to inform interested scientists, the news media, and the public, to minimize harm, curb poor research practices, and staunch the flow of misinformation about the benefits, costs, and future prospects of mindfulness meditation.
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Van den Broeck, A.,
Self-determination theory (SDT) conceptualizes basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness as innate and essential for ongoing psychological growth, internalization, and well-being. We broadly review the literature on basic psychological need satisfaction at work with three more specific aims: to test SDT’s requirement that each basic psychological need should uniquely predict psychological growth, internalization, and well-being; to test whether use of an overall need satisfaction measure is appropriate; and to test whether the scale used to assess basic psychological needs influenced our results. To this end, we conducted a meta-analytic review of 99 studies with 119 distinct samples examining the antecedents and consequences of basic need satisfaction. We conclude with recommendations for addressing issues arising from our review and also identify points for future research, including the study of need frustration and culture, integrating the basic needs with other motivation theories, and a caution regarding the measures and methods used.
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Pancreatic cancer is characterized by abundant desmoplasia, a dense stroma composed of extra-cellular and cellular components, with cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) being the major cellular component. However, the tissue(s) of origin for CAFs remains controversial. Here we determine the tissue origin of pancreatic CAFs through comprehensive lineage tracing studies in mice. We find that the splanchnic mesenchyme, the fetal cell layer surrounding the endoderm from which the pancreatic epithelium originates, gives rise to the majority of resident fibroblasts in the normal pancreas. In a genetic mouse model of pancreatic cancer, resident fibroblasts expand and constitute the bulk of CAFs. Single cell RNA profiling identifies gene expression signatures that are shared among the fetal splanchnic mesenchyme, adult fibroblasts and CAFs, suggesting a persistent transcriptional program underlies splanchnic lineage differentiation. Together, this study defines the phylogeny of the mesenchymal component of the pancreas and provides insights into pancreatic morphogenesis and tumorigenesis.
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