The Effect of the Work-Life Interface on Insomnia: A Longitudinal Analysis of Male and Female Employees in Switzerland

Abstract This study draws on the Swiss Household Panel and employs specific panel data methods to investigate whether work-life conflict – decomposed into time-, and strain-based conflicts – and lack of recovery during off-job time (i. e. psychological detachment from work) cause insomnia. The findings indicate that, when adequately accounting for individual hetero geneity and the relative importance of multiple causal factors, recovery and recuperation processes appear crucial to the experience of insomnia, while the significance of perceived work-life conflict recede, for both men and women.