SLEEP DURATION, SLEEP QUALITY AND SELF-REPORTED PRODUCTIVITY: A CROSS-SECTIONAL ONLINE SURVEY

Abstract

Background: Insufficient or poor-quality sleep is widely assumed to impair daily functioning, but it is unclear whether sleep duration or perceived sleep quality is more closely related to everyday productivity outside clinical and laboratory settings. Methods: In a cross-sectional online survey, 349 respondents (students, employed, self-employed and other respondents; 12 aged under 18) reported weekday and weekend sleep duration (four ordered bands), sleep quality (single 1-5 item), daytime tiredness, stress, low motivation and productivity (single 0-10 item). Associations were examined with Spearman correlations, Kruskal-Wallis and Jonckheere-Terpstra tests, and multiple linear regression adjusted for age, gender, occupation and work/study hours, with residual diagnostics and sensitivity analyses. Results: Mean productivity was 6.31 (SD 2.43). Sleep quality was moderately correlated with productivity (ρ = 0.40, 95% CI 0.30-0.50) and remained a strong independent correlate in the adjusted model (B = 0.89, 95% CI 0.70-1.09; adjusted R² = 0.21). Sleep duration showed a negligible association (weekday ρ = 0.12, weekend ρ = 0.11; about 1% of shared variance) that was not significant after adjustment. Daytime tiredness showed a small, non-monotonic inverse association (ρ = -0.12). Conclusions: In this convenience sample, perceived sleep quality, rather than reported sleep duration, was the main correlate of self-rated productivity. Single-item self-reports, common-method variance and possible reverse causality limit inference, and the findings should be replicated with validated instruments and longitudinal designs.