The DOI matches its Crossref record; 80 of the 81 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Zeigarnik’s sleepless nights: How unfinished tasks at the end of the week impair employee sleep on the weekend through rumination
Abstract
It is almost common sense that work stress leads to sleep impairment, but the question of how work-related stressors impair employee sleep remains open. This study focuses on the role of rumination as the underlying mechanism for sleep impairment. Specifically, the authors contribute to recent research differentiating affective rumination from problem-solving pondering and examine the impact of both forms of rumination on the stressor-sleep relationship. Following theories of rumination and the Zeigarnik effect, they focus on unfinished tasks as a key onset for rumination. Unfinished tasks have received much research attention in the memory context but have been neglected as a stressor that can impact recovery. Drawing on theory, differential indirect links between unfinished tasks and sleep through affective rumination versus problem-solving pondering are examined. Further, the number of unfinished tasks extending over a 3-month period may impair employee sleep more than unfinished tasks within the acute phase. In this study, intraindividual links in a diary study supplemented by depicting between-person effects of unfinished tasks over a period of 3 months are examined. The authors matched 357 Friday and Monday observations over a 12-week interval for 59 employees. The results of the multilevel analysis suggest that the within-person relationship between unfinished tasks and sleep is mediated by affective rumination. Although problem-solving pondering was negatively related…
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“Employees are therefore likely to ruminate about work during the weekend when they have unfinished tasks [12]”
From Ovsiankina's Great Relief: How Supplemental Work during the Weekend May Contribute to Recovery in the Face of Unfinished Tasks (2017) · cites this paper as [12]
In the citing paper
“Researchers in the domain of occupational stress and recovery have recently revealed that unattained goals at the end of the work day [11] or unfinished tasks at the end of the work week [1,12] are associated with higher levels of perseverative thoughts about work during leisure time, in terms of either lower levels of psychological detachment and higher levels of affective rumination or problem-”
From Ovsiankina's Great Relief: How Supplemental Work during the Weekend May Contribute to Recovery in the Face of Unfinished Tasks (2017) · cites this paper as [12]
In the citing paper
“The feeling of relief that accompanies the perception of progress [12,13] might trigger the perception of having more control over the subsequent time off work.”
From Ovsiankina's Great Relief: How Supplemental Work during the Weekend May Contribute to Recovery in the Face of Unfinished Tasks (2017) · cites this paper as [12]
In the citing paper
“Throughout this manuscript, we have argued that unfinished tasks are associated with inner tension and rumination [2,12,13].”
From Ovsiankina's Great Relief: How Supplemental Work during the Weekend May Contribute to Recovery in the Face of Unfinished Tasks (2017) · cites this paper as [12]
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Items 101–186 of 186
Barber, L. K., Hu, X., Huyen, T., & Jang, S. (2024) · Occupational Health Science · doi:10.1007/s41542-024-00209-8 · Cited by 6
“Future studies might consider further exploring rumination from unfinished tasks, which tend to increase sleep disturbances and insomnia (i.e., reduce sleep quality; Syrek & Antoni, 2014; Syrek et al., 2017).”
Long-term mortality of academy award winning actors and actresses
Redelmeier, D. A., & Singh, S. M. (2022) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0266563 · Cited by 6
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“detachment can also be supported through fixed rituals before and after working (Mojtahedzadeh et al. 2021; Mustafa and Gold, 2013; Syrek et al. 2017).”
BackgroundKalani, S., Asanjarani, F., & Rajabi, M. (2023) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-023-04978-3 · Cited by 8
“It has also been suggested that even if the problem is not solved, careful thought can lead to a specific plan to address the tasks driving improvement (Syrek et al., 2017 ).”
Weiher, G. M., Varol, Y. Z., & Horz, H. (2023) · Frontiers in Education · doi:10.3389/feduc.2023.1143773 · Cited by 8
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Zheng, S., Tan, S., Tan, X., & Fan, J. (2024) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs14010065 · Cited by 6
“Given the goal-directed nature of problem-solving pondering, employees may engage in problem-solving pondering during off-job hours, indicating a high level of work engagement [25].”
BackgroundResultShi, X. C., Huang, X., Guo, Z., & Gordon, S. E. (2024) · International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management · doi:10.1108/ijchm-06-2023-0783 · Cited by 5
Work addiction risk, stress and well-being at work: testing the mediating role of sleep quality
Charkhabi, M., Firoozabadi, A., Seidel, L., Habibi, M., Paola, F. D., & Dutheil, F. (2024) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2024.1352646 · Cited by 5
Grounded Task Prioritization with Context-Aware Sequential Ranking
Zhang, C., Kiseleva, J., Jauhar, S. K., & White, R. W. (2021) · ACM Transactions on Information Systems · doi:10.1145/3486861 · Cited by 7
Feng, X., & Han, P. (2023) · Journal of Management & Organization · doi:10.1017/jmo.2023.61 · Cited by 5
“Recent studies confirmed that problem-solving pondering prolongs individuals’ cognition and reaction to challenging demands because they think that tasks can be solved through their efforts, and they consider the potential benefits (Feng, 2022b; Syrek, Weigelt, Peifer, & Antoni, 2017).”
Derks, D., van Mierlo, H., & Kühner, C. (2025) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs15070871 · Cited by 5
“Employees may continue thinking about work after hours for various reasons, including job stressors (Sonnentag, 2011), unfinished tasks (Syrek et al., 2017), unfulfilled work goals (Smit, 2016), or negative work events (Bono et al., 2013).”
InfluentialChen, H., Liu, Y., Liu, J., & Wang, X.-H. F. (2025) · Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management · doi:10.1080/19368623.2025.2538027 · Cited by 6
“Third, problem-solving pondering can facilitate the generation of positive emotions and pleasurable experiences for employees (Cropley et al., 2012; Syrek et al., 2017).”
Baethge, A., Kern, M., & Vahle-Hinz, T. (2025) · Work & Stress · doi:10.1080/02678373.2025.2551492 · Cited by 4
“Thus, unfinished tasks are linked to stress-related outcomes such as rumination and sleep disturbances, even when controlling for time pressure (Syrek et al., 2017; Syrek & Antoni, 2014).”
Can’t get you o u t of my head: The stress-driven dual effects of LMX Ambivalence
Lee, A., Lyubovnikova, J., Stollberger, J., Thomas, G., Han, Y., Schwarz, G., & Cao, J. (2025) · Human Relations · doi:10.1177/00187267251392384 · Cited by 4
“Similarly, while problem-solving pondering has been linked to creativity, engagement, and proactive behavior (Vahle-Hinz et al., 2017), it can also become taxing under high workload conditions, interfering with sleep and increasing fatigue (Kinnunen et al., 2017; Syrek et al., 2017).”
Kaplan, S. A., Aitken, J. A., Allan, B. A., Alliger, G. M., Ballard, T., & Zacher, H. (2025) · Industrial and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1017/iop.2024.58 · Cited by 5
“Thus, they can follow us into our nonwork life (Syrek et al., 2017).”
Time Estimation Bias in Knowledge Work: Tasks With Fewer Time Constraints Are More Error-Prone
Ahmetoglu, Y., Brumby, D. P., & Cox, A. L. (2020) · CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) · doi:10.1145/3334480.3382917 · Cited by 4
“A failure to complete planned daily tasks can lead to stress, rumination over work during periods of rest and relaxation and sleep problems [12].”
BackgroundWork-related rumination declines with age but is moderated by gender
Cropley, M., Rydstedt, L. W., Chelidoni, O., Ollis, L., & Querstret, D. (2023) · Work · doi:10.3233/wor-220288 · Cited by 5
Gerçek, M., & Özveren, C. G. (2024) · Ardahan Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi · doi:10.58588/aru-jfeas.1540483 · Cited by 4
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Reis, D., Hart, A., Lehr, D., & Friese, M. (2021) · BMC Psychology · doi:10.1186/s40359-021-00591-w · Cited by 7
“Similar to the findings for "general" PT in the domain of occupational health, research has found that work-related rumination mediates (the appraisal of ) stressful events at work and depressive symptoms [31] and sleep complaints [32].”
ResultDo Goal Setting and Implementation Intentions Affect Detachment and Next-Day Fatigue?
van Eerde, W., Uitdewilligen, S., Hulsheger, U. R., & Schreurs, B. H. J. (2022) · Occupational Health Science · doi:10.1007/s41542-022-00135-7 · Cited by 5
“As long as our mind perceives a goal as unfulfilled, goal-related cognitive activity will be directed towards this goal, resulting in intrusive goal-related thoughts during unrelated subsequent activities (Syrek & Antoni, 2014; Syrek et al., 2017).”
BackgroundZhu, E., Li, W., Zhao, C., & Wang, J. (2024) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su16135710 · Cited by 3
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Marr, J. C., Lemay, E. P., & Park, H. (2025) · Personnel Psychology · doi:10.1111/peps.12674 · Cited by 3
“This is because rumination focuses information processing on task-irrelevant thoughts (Ellis and Ashbrook 1988; Syrek et al. 2017).”
Kim, D., Lanaj, K., Jennings, R. E., & Foulk, T. A. (2025) · Personnel Psychology · doi:10.1111/peps.12680 · Cited by 3
“In contrast, there is evidence that when employees experience unfinished tasks or impediments to their goal progress, they experience more rumination (Syrek et al. 2017).”
Fox, J. G. (2020) · Journal of EMDR Practice and Research · doi:10.1891/emdr-d-20-00011 · Cited by 3
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Vahle‐Hinz, T., Syrek, C. J., Kühnel, J., & Feuerhahn, N. (2019) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-662-59044-7_16 · Cited by 4
Self-citationOpielka, S., & Staller, M. S. (2024) · Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology · doi:10.1007/s11896-024-09661-2 · Cited by 3
“In order to capture the characteristic of the permanent cognitive presence of problems relating to work activity, three occupation-specific items were formulated following Syrek et al. (2017).”
Seim, Y., Strobel, L., Gerling, K., & Alexandrovsky, D. (2025) · International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) · doi:10.1145/3723498.3723804 · Cited by 2
Baierer, F., & Glaser, J. (2025) · German Journal of Human Resource Management Zeitschrift für Personalforschung · doi:10.1177/23970022251356383 · Cited by 2
“Unfinished work tasks were operationalized at T1 using four of six items of the scale by Syrek et al. (2017), which we adapted to the day level.”
InfluentialHelpless or hopeful? How and when incongruent CSR motivates employees’ voice behavior
Long, X., Shao, Y., Yang, T., Chen, Y., & Deng, X. (2026) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115916 · Cited by 2
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Yang, Y., Chen, H., & Wang, X.-H. F. (2026) · Applied Psychology · doi:10.1111/apps.70064 · Cited by 2
Wendsche, J., Weigelt, O., & Syrek, C. J. (2026) · Anxiety Stress & Coping · doi:10.1080/10615806.2026.2616302 · Cited by 3
“Similarly, level-specific results appeared for the role of the unfinished task measures, which exhibited weaker but still positive within-person level relationships in studies using the Syrek et al. (2017) unfinished task items than for the other scales.”
InfluentialSelf-citationDisaster or chance? The double-edged effect of crisis strength on employees
Dong, Y., Dong, H., Jiang, J., Wu, X., & Yuan, Y. (2026) · International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management · doi:10.1108/ijchm-07-2025-1087 · Cited by 2
Albulescu, P., Macsinga, I., Tulbure, B. T., & Rusu, A. (2024) · Romanian Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.2478/rjap-2024-0003 · Cited by 3
Silva‐Costa, A., Souto, E. P., Rotenberg, L., & Griep, R. H. (2023) · Cadernos Saúde Coletiva · doi:10.1590/1414-462x202331030001 · Cited by 1
Need satisfaction matters: The role of need satisfaction at work in work-related rumination
Manuoğlu, E., Dalḡar, İ., Máčalová, V., & Šmilňák, R. (2024) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-024-07034-w · Cited by 1
“More importantly, although both the Work-Related Rumi-nation Scale (e.g., WRRS Spanish: Rosario-Hernández et al., 2021; WRRQ German: Syrek et al., 2017; T-WRRS Turkish: Sulak Akyüz & Sulak, 2019) and Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale-Work Domain (e.g., BPNSFS-W Japanese:…”
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Zhao, L., Knierim, M. T., Wilson, M. L., Dickinson, P., & Maior, H. A. (2025) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3706598.3713915 · Cited by 2
“Unfinished tasks and unmet goals at work also contribute to low levels of detachment during non-work time, further affecting accumulated stress [76, 86], and high work demands can also decrease relaxation [45].”
Grünberger, T., Höhn, C., Schabus, M., & Laireiter, A. (2025) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph22111681 · Cited by 1
“…instability, tension, perfectionism; ERI: Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire [42], subscales effort, reward, overcommitment, imbalance; MZS: Meinungen-zum-Schlaf-Fragebogen (dysfunctional beliefs about sleep) [34]; PSAS: Pre-sleep arousal scale [51], total score, subscales somatic, cognitive.”
Kruger, A., Jooste, J., & Krüger, P. (2025) · Cogent Psychology · doi:10.1080/23311908.2025.2592902 · Cited by 1
“…even if the issue is not resolved, contemplating the problem may lead to a specific plan for addressing the task, which also facilitates recovery (syrek et al., 2017). the last component of work-related rumination is psychological detachment , which is characterised by either having one’s…”
Kovalchuk, L. S., González‐Romá, V., Balducci, C., Molinaro, D., & Spagnoli, P. (2025) · Anxiety Stress & Coping · doi:10.1080/10615806.2025.2601226 · Cited by 1
“Despite initial research investigating unfinished tasks beginning almost one century ago (Zeigarnik, 1927, 1938), the mechanisms through which unfin-ished tasks are related to sleep quality are not well-known (Syrek et al., 2017).”
InfluentialBrossoit, R. M., Castro, D. M., Crain, T. L., Hammer, L. B., & Bodner, T. (2025) · Journal of Business and Psychology · doi:10.1007/s10869-025-10075-y · Cited by 2
“…with poorer sleep outcomes and mediates the effects of stress (e.g., Clancy et al., 2020; Drake et al., 2014; Pillai & Drake, 2015; Zagaria et al., 2023)—including work-related stressors (e.g., Berset et al., 2011; Demsky et al., 2019; Querstret & Cropley, 2012; Syrek et al., 2017)—on sleep.”
Trenz, N., & Keith, N. (2026) · Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1111/joop.70085 · Cited by 2
Tao, H., Li, J. W., & Deng, X. (2026) · Journal of Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1002/job.70124 · Cited by 1
Effects of Idle Time on Well-Being: An Experimental Study
Zeschke, M., Schubert, K., & Zacher, H. (2023) · Zeitschrift für Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie A&O · doi:10.1026/0932-4089/a000422 · Cited by 1
The shadowy realm of proactivity: how rumination fuels work–life conflict
Goswami, M., & Dash, S. (2025) · Evidence-based HRM: a Global Forum for Empirical Scholarship · doi:10.1108/ebhrm-07-2024-0240
The effect of smartphone use during off-job time on emotional exhaustion and job engagement
Kim, D., & Heo, C. (2019) · Korean Journal of Industrial and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.24230/kjiop.v32i2.215-240 · Cited by 1
“한편, 문제해 결 숙고와 정서소진의 관계와 관련하여, 해결 되지 않은 문제를 생각하는 문제해결숙고를 통해 다음날 업무에 적용할 수 있는 해결책을 찾는 경우 긍정적인 정서를 경험하게 되고, 이는 직원들의 사기를 북돋우고 자원을 보충 해주는 회복경험을 제공할 수 있다(Bennett, Gabriel, Calderwood, Dahling, & Trougakos, 2016; Cropley et al., 2012; Syrek et al., 2017).”
Do physicians suffer or benefit from the Zeigarnik effect?
Naviaux, A.-F., Janne, P., & Gourdin, M. J. (2020) · L Encéphale · doi:10.1016/j.encep.2020.08.012 · Cited by 1
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Kinnunen, U. M., Feldt, T., Korpela, K., Mauno, S., & Sianoja, M. (2025) · Psykologia · doi:10.62443/psykologia.v52i4.144816 · Cited by 2
“…vatvominen ei vaarantaisi hyvinvointia, mitä on selitetty sillä, että mikäli ongelma ratkeaa tai ongelmaan löy-detään ratkaisusuunnitelma, ongelmasuuntautu-neen vatvomisen seuraukset eivät välttämättä ole negatiivisia (Querstret & Cropley, 2012; Syrek, Weigelt, Peifer & Antoni, 2017).”
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Reis, D., & Prestele, E. (2019) · PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/vfctk
“Building on previous work by Syrek and Antoni (2014) and Syrek et al. (2017), we measured unfinished tasks with three items (e.g., “I couldn't complete many of my tasks today, so now I need to finish them tomorrow” and “I am discontent that I didn't manage to complete today's important tasks”).”
BackgroundMethodvan Ravenzwaaij, D., de Jong, M., Hoekstra, R., Scheibe, S., Span, M. M., Wessel, I., & Heininga, V. E. (2023) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/acpm3 · Cited by 2
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“They have tasks that need to be done and face consequences, either in terms of professional or personal impact, when tasks are left unfinished [10].”
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“Daily well-being is positively correlated with ruminative self-focus [28].”
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Wray, C. A., Kao, C.-C., Wang, Y., & Lyu, G.-H. (2026) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-026-09072-y
“Studies show that affective rumination may jeopardize the off-job recovery process (Syrek et al., 2017) and is associated with higher levels of exhaustion and impaired well-being (Cropley et al., 2015; Firoozabadi et al., 2018a; Kinnunen et al., 2017).”
Yang, X., Qi, Y., 张冬梅, Xia, D., & Xie, Y. (2026) · BMC Nursing · doi:10.1186/s12912-026-04560-9
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“Several work characteristics of participants were assessed on a scale of 1–5, i.e., the number of unfinished tasks (59), time pressure (ISTA) (60), autonomy concerning the order in which tasks were completed and the variety of tasks (WDQ) (61), and social support from colleagues (SzSU) (62).”
Self-citationDeniz, V. (2026) · Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi · doi:10.18069/firatsbed.1625295
Cropley, M., & Ciobotaru, D. (2026) · Cogent Psychology · doi:10.1080/23311908.2026.2670046
He, X., Cao, Y., Gao, Q., Zhang, Z., Bian, R., & Wang, X.-H. F. (2026) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-026-09528-1
“Syrek et al. ( 2017 ) suggest that uncompleted tasks stay active in working memory, creating a persistent cognitive loop that fosters involuntary rehearsal and attention toward task completion.”
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Nie, Q., Lu, Y., & Peng, J. (2026) · Chinese Management Studies · doi:10.1108/cms-03-2025-0244
Lee, K., & Gong, T. (2026) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-026-09784-1
“Similarly, research on work-related rumination suggests that employees may experience both affectively negative rumi - nation and more problem-focused reflection in relation to work difficulties (Syrek et al., 2017; Weigelt et al., 2019; Junker et al., 2021 ).”
InfluentialMichailidis, E., Tommasi, F., Sartori, R., Zene, M., & Ceschi, A. (2026) · Employee Relations · doi:10.1108/er-04-2025-0243
Velati, E., Donati, S., Rubini, S., Margheritti, S., Gragnano, A., Gatti, P., Кочетова, Т. В., Ceschi, A., Zappalà, S., & Miglioretti, M. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1845951
“…forms of reflective, solutions-oriented thinking to creativity and innovation (Baas et al., 2008; Spoor et al., 2010), problem-solving pondering may be beneficial, including by fostering actionable plans to address work issues even when the problem is not fully resolved (Syrek et al., 2017).”
Lou, W., He, T., & Li, G. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1824972
“Furthermore, by controlling for the previous night’s sleep quality (Syrek et al., 2017; Sladek et al., 2020; Janurek et al., 2024) and the previous day’s work alienation, we rigorously isolated the daily fluctuations in our focal variables.”
InfluentialPeng, Z., Sethi, H., Xue, H., Kolks, L. A. G., Hu, J., & Desmet, P. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1882556
Barber, L. K., & Henderson, A. A. (2026) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/9780197692332.003.0004
Fu, J., Chen, C., & Lai, X. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1955185
“Officers may repeatedly revisit operational details, their personal responsibilities, and the possible consequences of work events (Syrek et al., 2017).”
Hu, X., Barber, L. K., & Santuzzi, A. M. (2026) · Occupational Health Science · doi:10.1007/s41542-026-00273-2
“Unfinished work tasks have also been linked to higher after-work rumination (Syrek et al., 2017 ), which likely increases the felt need to respond.”
Rutten, R. L. J., & Wehrt, W. (2026) · Work & Stress · doi:10.1080/02678373.2026.2722069
How developmental feedback from supervisors affects employees’ procrastination behavior
Zhuo, F., Cao, C., Li, Y., & Yuan, L. (2026) · Leadership & Organization Development Journal · doi:10.1108/lodj-04-2025-0251
Mühl, A., Korunka, C., Zedlacher, E., & Hartner-Tiefentahler, M. (2026) · Journal of Change Management · doi:10.1080/14697017.2026.2742141
Ruminating or pondering? The dual-path influence of coworker stress bragging on helping behavior
Zhao, H., Cai, H., Ma, C., & Huang, Y. (2026) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-026-10225-2
“Affective rumination refers to the repeated recall of negative emotional experiences in the workplace when individuals encounter stressors at work (Syrek et al., 2017).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Syrek, C. J., Weigelt, O., Peifer, C., & Antoni, C. H.
- Affiliations
- Universität Trier (DE)
- FernUniversität in Hagen (DE)
- Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
- Venue
- Journal of Occupational Health Psychology
- Published
- 2017-04
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 225-238
- ISSN
- 1076-8998 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1307
- OpenAlex
- W2338866585
- Cited by
- 187
- References
- 81
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 11
- FWCI
- 18.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Occupational Health Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Workaholism, burnout, and well-being
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Keywords
- unfinished tasks, Zeigarnik effect, affective rumination, problem-solving pondering, sleep disorders, occupational stress, employee recovery, weekend sleep, occupational stressors
- MeSH terms
- Work Performance, Adult, Attitude, Cognition, Female, Germany, Humans, Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders, Male, Middle Aged, Problem Solving, Surveys and Questionnaires, Stress, Psychological, Work, Multilevel Analysis, Young Adult
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