Lost sleep and cyberloafing: Evidence from the laboratory and a Daylight Saving Time quasi-experiment

• Main Authors: WAGNER, David T., BARNES, Christopher M., LIM, Vivien K. G., FERRIS, D. Lance
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2012
• Subjects: Daylight Saving Time (DST); conscientiousness; cyberloafing; self-regulation; sleep; employees; Organizational Behavior and Theory; Psychology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/3210; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/4209/viewcontent/Lost_Sleep_and_Cyberloafing.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The Internet is a powerful tool that has changed the way people work. However, the ubiquity of the Internet has led to a new workplace threat to productivity—cyberloafing. Building on the ego depletion model of self-regulation, we examine how lost and low-quality sleep influence employee cyberloafing behaviors and how individual differences in conscientiousness moderate these effects. We also demonstrate that the shift to Daylight Saving Time (DST) results in a dramatic increase in cyberloafing behavior at the national level. We first tested the DST–cyberloafing relation through a national quasi-experiment, then directly tested the relation between sleep and cyberloafing in a closely controlled laboratory setting. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, practice, and future research.