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Relying on the effort-recovery model, this study aimed to test how and when a good night’s sleep increases in daily physical health. The authors hypothesized that when individuals have a good night’s sleep, it helps them to recover their self-regulatory resources, and, in turn, these cognitive resources improve their physical health experienced at work. Furthermore, the authors argue that this will be different depending on the individuals’ levels of neuroticism; that is, the indirect relationship between sleep duration and physical health through self-regulatory resources will be stronger for individuals who score lower on neuroticism, and in contrast, the relationship will be buffered for those who score higher on neuroticism.

To test the hypothesized model, the authors conducted a three-wave longitudinal study with working adults (N = 262). The authors used multilevel modelling to test if neuroticism moderated the indirect relationship between sleep duration and physical health through self-regulatory resources, at both between and within-person levels.

The multilevel results showed that a good night’s sleep recovered self-regulatory resources needed to promote physical health; however, this indirect relationship was buffered for those who scored higher on neuroticism (versus lower levels of neuroticism).

Hence, the role of neuroticism as a potentially harming condition for employees’ physical health is pointed out.

The findings highlight the relevance of sleep as a recovery activity for both cognitive and physical resources experienced during the working day. However, this appears to be attenuated for employees with higher levels of neuroticism.

Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, the authors expected that daily micro-events, daily hassles and uplifts at work influenced well-being via work engagement at the daily level.

The authors conducted two diary studies. In study 1, 181 workers answered a daily questionnaire for four working days (N = 181 × 4 = 724). In study 2, 51 workers filled in a questionnaire for ten consecutive working days (N = 51 × 10 = 510).

In study 1, the results demonstrated that work engagement fully mediated the effects of daily uplifts on well-being and partially mediated the effects of daily hassles on well-being. The results of study 2 revealed a full mediation for both kinds of daily micro-events. Hence, daily uplifts stimulated work engagement, which, in turn, enhanced well-being, and daily hassles minimized work engagement and, consequently, well-being.

The relationships explored provide new theoretical elements for models that explain well-being.