Impacts of workplace bullying on sleep can be ‘contagious’ between partners, research suggests

Workplace bullying affects not only the employee’s sleep but their partner’s too, according to new research published today.

Exposure to bullying by superiors and/or colleagues has been linked to a variety of negative health outcomes, such as sleep problems.

Now research by the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the UK, and Complutense University of Madrid and Seville University in Spain, sheds light on the short-term consequences of workplace bullying on various indicators of sleep.

These include waking up too early (sleep severity), interference with daily life (sleep impact) and dissatisfaction with one’s own sleep (sleep satisfaction).

Writing in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, the researchers aimed to examine how bullying at work impacts insomnia and to test the mediating role of “anger rumination”—which involves repetitive, persistent thinking about distressing events, such as bullying.

They found the relationship between bullying and sleep increases over time, particularly in relation to sleep onset difficulties, staying asleep and early morning awakening, and is explained by work-related anger felt by the employee and this constant rumination.

They also found evidence of insomnia symptoms being “contagious” between employees and their partners, meaning that the sleep issues (both severity and impact) of one person can influence the other, highlighting how interconnected sleep health can be in relationships.

Lead UK author Professor Ana Sanz-Vergel, from UEA’s Norwich Business School, said, “Our results show that the effects of workplace bullying are time-dependent and accumulative, and go beyond the individual and the work setting, impacting the partner’s sleep as well.

“When individuals experience bullying at work, they may engage in rumination as a way to mentally process and attempt to cope with negative events. However, this repeated thinking about distressing events can lead to the development of sleep problems such as difficulties in falling asleep, staying asleep, or sleep impact and satisfaction.

“Therefore, rumination can be seen as a maladaptive coping strategy to deal with workplace bullying, meaning that while this type of reflection may initially seem like a way to resolve issues or understand the situation, it can actually lead to more harm in the long run.”

Current knowledge is limited regarding the short-time impact of bullying processes on sleep and the association between workplace bullying and sleep. This is especially important considering that sleep problems are often immediate or short-term responses to stressful situations. There is also limited information about the effects of bullying beyond the individual experiencing it.

To help address this, the team conducted two studies. In the first, 147 employees were followed over five days, and in the second, 139 couples were followed for a period of two months. In both, the participants, all from Spain, had to report on their exposure to workplace bullying, work-related anger rumination and different indicators of insomnia.

The first study showed bullying indirectly affected sleep severity through rumination and, in the second, also sleep satisfaction and sleep impact, indicating that rumination is a key factor in how bullying affects various aspects of sleep quality.

“It is very interesting that insomnia is contagious,” said Prof Sanz Vergel. “Partners appear to influence each other’s sleep severity and sleep impact, which is not surprising, since one individual’s awakening could cause the other to wake up as well.

“If that’s the case, then both of them can feel that lack of sleep interferes with their daily life. Satisfaction with sleep, however, is less susceptible to this contagion, possibly because it involves more subjective elements.”

The authors recommend that interventions around workplace bullying should be designed both at the organizational and individual levels. From an organizational viewpoint, reducing stressors and fostering a healthy organizational culture have become crucial.

At the individual level, interventions should be focused on developing skills to help individuals more effectively deal with stressors.

Prof Sanz Vergel added, “Training on how to disconnect from work has proven efficient and has been shown to minimize the effects of bullying. In addition, couple-oriented prevention programs in the context of the workplace are needed—this could help provide coping strategies to both members of the couple, which would in turn reduce rumination levels and insomnia.”