Work Shifts and Time Use: Implications for Daily Activities and Well-Being

Background/Purpose: Socioeconomic inequality is shaped not only by income but also by the timing and unpredictability of work. According to a recent report by Weil Cornell Medicine, over 22 million Americans work evening, night, rotating, or on-call shifts, often struggling to organize their time and manage responsibilities outside of work. Shift work can reduce sleep quality and duration and is linked to adverse physical and mental health outcomes. While policy discussions often emphasize wages and benefits, nonstandard schedules themselves may inherently place workers at risk. Guided by the time poverty framework and prior research, the study addresses two questions: (1) How do individuals across different work schedules allocate time to essential daily activities, including paid work, household chores, sleep, personal care, eating and drinking, and volunteering? (2) How do these patterns vary by gender, occupation, and family income, controlling for other sociodemographic characteristics?

Methods: This study uses data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) for years 2003–2023. Respondents were employed individuals aged 18–65 who reported at least one work-related activity on their diary day. ATUS participants are drawn from households that previously took part in the Current Population Survey (CPS). The analytic sample includes 74,988 time diaries. Analyses used ATUS sampling and replicate weights to produce nationally representative estimates. Work schedules were derived from the 24-hour time diary and classified as Standard daytime, Evening, Night, or Variable. Daily time in paid work, household chores, sleep, eating and drinking, personal care, and volunteering served as outcomes. Ordinary least squares regression examined associations between work schedules and time use, controlling for sociodemographic and household characteristics, with subgroup analyses by gender, occupation, and family income.

Results: Nonstandard and variable work schedules reshape daily time use, reducing sleep, personal care, and eating. Standard daytime workers sleep the least (7.83 hours), while night workers sleep slightly more but less consistently. Variable schedule workers work the longest hours (11.07 hours), reflecting extended shifts. Evening shifts reduce paid work (β = −0.73, p < .001) but increase household labor (β = +0.39, p < .001) and sleep (β = +0.29, p < .001), while personal care and eating decline. Variable schedules are linked to longer work hours and less time for self-care and rest. Overall, nonstandard schedules heighten time constraints, limit personal time, and sustain gender gaps in unpaid labor, with occupational and income differences influencing the magnitude but not the observation.

Conclusions and Implications: These findings highlight the need for targeted policy interventions that improve work schedule predictability, limit excessively long shifts, and expand access to supportive services, including childcare, mental health resources, and flexible work arrangements. Solutions such as universal childcare, paid family leave, flexible scheduling, and father-focused parental leave can help redistribute care responsibilities and support work-life balance. Implementing a coordinated care framework that aligns economic, labor, and health policies is critical to mitigating the structural burdens of unpaid and care work and fostering a more equitable and resilient workforce.