When Work Follows You Home: Development and Psychometric Validation of the Work-induced Night-Time Thoughts Scale and Implications for Employee Well-being

Night-time thoughts are an important aspect of pre-sleep arousal, yet existing measures do not adequately capture work-induced forms of such cognition. Drawing on pre-sleep arousal theory, this research reports the development and validation of the Work-Induced Night-Time Thoughts Scale (WINTS), an instrument designed to assess work-induced worry, past embarrassing memories and anticipatory anxiety. Four studies were conducted using independent employee samples from 13 Asia-Pacific countries. Study 1 ( N = 263) employed exploratory factor analysis and identified a three-factor structure. Study 2 ( N = 379) used confirmatory factor analysis to validate the structure, which demonstrated satisfactory reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, criterion validity and gender invariance. Study 2 also validated a shorter version of the scale. Study 3 ( N = 164) established nomological validity between the WINTS dimensions and insomnia severity. Study 4 ( N = 247) showed that sleep disturbances partially mediated the relationships of worry and anticipatory anxiety with employee absenteeism, while fully mediating the relationship between past embarrassing memories and absenteeism. The findings establish the WINTS as a psychometrically sound measure of work-related pre-sleep cognition and extend organizational research on employee sleep and well-being. Implications are discussed accordingly.