Workplace bullying could affect your partner’s sleep too, new study reveals

Though we all are more than our jobs, it's no secret that we all spend a large chunk of time engrossed in work. But what if the environment is toxic? Well, the repercussions will be more than you think. Workplace bullying not only affects the employee’s sleep, but their partner’s too, reveals a new study.
New research by the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the UK, and the Complutense University of Madrid and Seville University in Spain revealed that the exposure to bullying by superiors and/or colleagues has been linked to a variety of negative health outcomes, such as sleep problems. The new study sheds light on the short-term consequences of workplace bullying on various indicators of sleep, including waking up too early (sleep severity), interference with daily life (sleep impact), and dissatisfaction with own sleep (sleep satisfaction).
The study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence examines how workplace bullying impacts insomnia. The researchers found that over time, the relationship between bullying and sleep increases, especially with trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and waking up early. This is due to work-related anger felt by the employee and this constant thinking.
Interestingly, they also found evidence of insomnia symptoms being ‘contagious’ between employees and their partners. This means the sleep issues (both severity and impact) of one person can influence their respective partner. This underlines how interconnected sleep health can be in relationships.
“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 the 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,” lead UK author Professor Ana Sanz-Vergel, from UEA's Norwich Business School said in a statement.
Current knowledge is limited to the short-term impact of workplace bullying on sleep, its immediate effects as a stress response, and its broader impact beyond the targeted individual is yet to be explored. To further understand 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. All the participants were from space and had to report on their exposure to workplace bullying, work-related anger rumination, and different indicators of insomnia.
The first study showed that bullying indirectly affected sleep severity through rumination, while the second indicated how it affected sleep satisfaction and sleep impact. It highlighted that rumination is a key factor in how bullying affects various aspects of sleep quality.
“It is very interesting that insomnia is contagious. 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,” Prof Sanz Vergel said. “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.”


“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,” Prof Sanz Vergel added.