Academic Awards 2025 booklet

93 Fluctuations in Burnout: Uncovering the Role of Light and Sleep Burnout is becoming increasingly prevalent in the Netherlands and worldwide. Although traditionally studied as a chronic condition, recent evidence suggests burnout also has a state component that fluctuates due to daily or momentary factors. As state experiences could develop into chronic burnout over time, identifying factors associated with changes in state burnout-related experiences is essential for prevention. Insights from chronobiology indicate that such changes may be associated with factors related to circadian rhythms and (mis)alignment, yet organizational psychology has rarely considered chronobiological factors in relation to burnout. This dissertation integrates insights and methodologies from lighting research, chronobiology, and organizational psychology to assess within-person, time-lagged relationships between light, sleep, and burnout-related experiences across moments, days, and several months. Employing ecological momentary and longitudinal field assessments, we demonstrate that burnout-related experiences seem to accumulate in a parabolic function within days (Figure 1) and are influenced by chronobiological factors such as light (Figure 2) and (daily and habitual) sleep. Individuals with higher levels of chronic burnout were more sensitive to inadequate lighting and poor-quality sleep, suggesting that these factors might be particularly important for preventing further burnout development among those already vulnerable (Figure 2). Our results suggest that chronobiological factors should be considered in the pursuit of sustainable employment. 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 −2 −1 0 1 Hourly illuminance (in log lux, person−mean centered) Exhaustion (log) Trait Exhaustion Low Mean High Figure 1: Momentary exhaustion as a parabolic function of local clock time. Figure 2: The relationship between hourly mean illuminance (in log lux and person- mean centered) and momentary exhaustion as a function of high (+1 SD from the mean), average (mean), and low levels of trait exhaustion (-1 SD from the mean).