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Here's A New Finding To Bring Up Next Time Your Boss Asks You To Work Late

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IN THE ZONE WORK
A new study reveals the effect being recovered has on "flow" states during the work day. | Anthony Lee via Getty Images
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They're those moments when you really love your job. You're energized and completely focused on the task at hand.

You're "in the zone" -- or, as scientists put it, you're experiencing a "flow state."

And new research suggests a simple way to experience more of those moments and boost your job performance -- it's all about keeping your evening time for yourself.

"If employees have the possibility to recover well from work, they will experience more flow at work, which may actually help improve their performance on the job," study co-author Dr. Maike Debus, a psychologist at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, told The Huffington Post in an email. "Managers/supervisors should support employees in recovering from work...not making them stay overtime too often; not saying something like 'Think about project XYZ tonight, and let's talk about it tomorrow.'"

For the study, Debus and her colleagues asked 121 computer programmers to complete a series of questionnaires every day for five days. One questionnaire gauged how rested the workers felt in the morning at the start of the working day, allowing them to note whether "This morning, I feel well-rested" or not. Three other questionnaires given throughout the day gauged the workers' sense of "flow" on the job.

What did the researchers find? Workers who felt recovered in the mornings experienced above-average flow levels.

"The more/better recovered a person felt in the morning of a specific day (compared to his/her average), the more flow he or she experienced," Debus said in the email. "Research has shown that activities that help people to detach from work (i.e., being mentally and physically away from work, not thinking about work-related matters) are very beneficial for recovery."

That's something to think about next time you're asked to stay late or work on a project in the evening.

The study was published in the July 2014 issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology.

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Health Benefits Of Relaxation
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  • Relaxing Protects Your Heart

    You've probably heard that stress can seriously up your risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks and other heart problems. While researchers aren't sure exactly why, the research is unanimously in favor of relaxation for your heart's sake. "There are studies to show that stress is comparable to other risk factors that we traditionally think of as major, like hypertension, poor diet and lack of exercise," Kathi Heffner, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at the Rochester Center for Mind-Body Research at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, told Health.com. Intense, sudden periods of stress or shock, like a breakup or even winning the lottery, can trigger such a rush of adrenaline that the heart can't function properly, resulting in heart failure or heart attack-like symptoms. In the case of a breakup or death of a loved one, this has become known as broken heart syndrome. Flickr photo by epSos.de

  • Relaxing Lowers Your Risk Of Catching A Cold

    Sheldon Cohen, Ph.D., a psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has been at the forefront of stress research since the 1990s. Early on, he showed that chronic stress lasting more than a month but less than six months doubled a person's risk of catching a cold. His more recent research has tried to figure out why, and results seem to point to inflammation. It appears that stress hampers the body's ability to fight inflammation, by making immune cells less sensitive to the hormone that "turns off" inflammation, HealthyDay reported. Flickr photo by anna gutermuth

  • Relaxing Boosts Your Memory

    A March study found that, at least in mice, chronic stress impaired the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in abstract thought, cognitive analysis and detecting the appropriate behavior for a given situation. Previous research in mice also showed that shorter bursts of stress impaired the centers of the brain involved in memory and learning, and left the mice struggling to remember how to find their way through a maze. A number of studies have also found that stress increases the amount of certain proteins in the brain that have been linked to Alzheimer's, possibly accelerating the development of the disease. Flickr photo by Sarah DuMay

  • Relaxing Lowers Your Stroke Risk

    A 2007 University of Cambridge study found that people who coped the best with stressful life events had a 24 percent lower risk of stroke. It may be partly due to the fact that people who handle stress well often are healthy in other ways, like exercising regularly and not smoking. A 2011 study examined the specific effects of work-related stress, and found that among middle- and upper-class men, psychological stress caused about 10 percent of strokes. Flickr photo by Florin Gorgan

  • Relaxing Keeps You Safe From Depression

    Studies have shown that chronic stress can kill brain cells, and even prevent the creation of new ones, in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in a healthy response to stress, according to Time.com. In 2011, a study in mice illustrated these findings and began to explain one possible way antidepressants work. The mice exposed to a stressful situation didn't want to eat, gave up during a swimming task much faster and exhibited "pleasurelessness" -- similar to human depression symptoms like loss of appetite, sadness and hopelessness. In humans, the prolonged presence of stress hormone cortisol can reduce levels of serotonin and dopamine, which are linked to depression. Stress is also likely to exacerbate mood problems in people with a history of depression or bipolar disorder, and could trigger relapse. Flickr photo by Danny Nicholson

  • Relaxing Helps You Make Better Decisions

    It's no surprise that when you're under stress, you might not always be thinking so clearly. But a 2012 study found that stress seems to actually change how we weigh risks and rewards, and can cloud our judgment when we are faced with important decisions. Counterintuitively, stressed-out people actually tend to focus on the positive, and may ignore the cons of the decision they're about to make, one of the study's authors, Mara Mather Ph.D., a professor of gerontology and psychology at the University of Southern California, said in a statement. That may also help explain why alcoholics crave a drink more when they're under pressure. "The compulsion to get that reward comes stronger and they're less able to resist it," Mather said. Flickr photo by Daehyun Park

  • Relaxing Keeps You Slim

    We love a good comfort food every once in a while, but reaching for foods high in fat and sugar too often can pack on the pounds, and stress makes it harder to resist. Cortisol increases appetite, and may even specifically encourage junk food cravings. Flickr photo by fwooper

  • Relaxing Eases Acne

    It's a vicious cycle: You're stressed about that presentation at work, so you break out, and then you're stressed about the breakout! Researchers aren't exactly sure why, but stress seems to up the amount of oil produced by the skin, clogging pores and causing acne, according to WebMD. Flare-ups of other skin problems, like psoriasis, have also been linked to stress, and can be equally stressful themselves. But relaxing really helps: A 1998 study found that psoriasis plaques cleared up more quickly in people who regularly meditated.

  • Relaxing Will Keep You In The Mood

    One of the big reasons that women lose that lovin' feeling is stress, but men aren't immune either. In fact, Kinsey Institute researchers found that stress zaps the libido of around 30 percent of men (although another 21 percent said it actually increased their sex drive.). "Men are more likely to see sex as a stress reliever, whereas for many busy women, their husband's desire is just another demand on their time and energy," Alice Domar, Ph.D., director of the Mind/Body Center for Women's Health at Boston IVF told Ladies Home Journal. Flickr photo by pedrosimoes7

  • Relaxing Could Slow Breast Cancer

    While research on the effects of stress on cancer growth are largely inconclusive, there is some evidence pointing toward a link between stress and breast cancer aggressiveness. Relaxing not only seems to delay the progression of the disease, but may also speed recovery. And if you're currently cancer free, relaxing now can keep you healthy later. A 2003 study found that stress may double a woman's risk of developing breast cancer down the line.

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