Your Job Makes us Lose Sleep: The Effect of Workplace Bullying on Own and Partner’ Insomnia

Abstract

Exposure to bullying behaviors has been associated with a variety of negative health outcomes, such as sleep complaints. However, the current state of the knowledge is limited regarding the short-term bullying processes. Thus, we conducted research with two different time frames, to analyze short- (diary) and medium-term (monthly) associations of workplace bullying with insomnia. In the first study, we used a daily diary research design, with a sample of 147 participants ( N = 735 occasions). In the second study, we used a longitudinal design with four waves and two months of time lag, with a sample of 139 heterosexual couples ( N = 278 participants; N = 1,112 occasions). Multilevel analyses showed that, in the first study, there was an indirect effect of bullying on sleep severity through rumination. In the second study, rumination transmitted the indirect effect of bullying on sleep satisfaction and sleep impact. In addition, we found a partial mediation effect of rumination between bullying and sleep severity. Furthermore, we also found a contagion of employees’ and their partners’ insomnia symptoms (i.e., severity and sleep impact). The results of this study provide some insight into the mechanisms underlying workplace bullying’s effects on sleep and identify a differential effect based on time lag.