Retirees have less sleep problems

William Atkins
Monday, 02 November 2009 22:40

Science - Health

The incidences of sleep disturbances dropped from 24.2% in the last year of working to 17.8% after the first year of retirement.

Even though sleep disturbances increased over the seven years of retirement, going from 17.8% to 19.%, the percentages were still far lower than when working.

The researchers reported that the greatest decrease in sleep disturbances came from people who had depression or mental fatigue before retiring.

The researchers concluded, “Repeated measurements provide strong evidence for a substantial and sustained decrease in sleep disturbances following retirement."

"The possibility that the health and well-being of individuals are significantly worse when in employment than following retirement presents a great challenge to improve the quality of work life in Western societies in which the cost of the aging population can only be met through an increase in average retirement age.”

Dr. Jussi Vahtera, one of the authors of the study and professor in the department of public health at the University of Turku in Finland, stated, "We believe these findings are largely applicable in situations where financial incentives not to retire are relatively weak. In countries and positions where there is no proper pension level to guarantee financial security beyond working age, however, retirement may be followed by severe stress disturbing sleep even more than before retirement."