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Work stress may not impact sleep quality
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The positive sleep changes that older residents of Finland experienced after retirement was likely not caused by the removal of difficult work situations, according to findings recently published in Sleep.
“Relief from work stress has been hypothesized to explain improvements in sleep duration and quality following retirement, but this has not been confirmed with longitudinal studies,” Saana Myllyntausta, MA, of the department of public health at the University of Turku in Finland, and colleagues wrote.
Researchers examined sleep times and characteristics of 2,053 patients (mean age, 63.2 years; 83% women) from various employment backgrounds every 3 months around each person’s retirement.
Myllyntausta and colleagues found that overall levels of sleep duration increased statistically significantly by 19 minutes (95% CI, 17-20) when comparing the last measurement before retirement to the first measurement after retirement. In addition, statistically significant differences following retirement were recorded in the prevalence of waking up too early in the morning (RR = 0.78; 95% CI, 0.68-0.89), sleep loss due to worry (RR = 0.75; 95% CI, 0.65-0.86), nonrestorative sleep (RR = 0.69; 95% CI, 0.58-0.83), daytime tiredness (RR = 0.68; 95% CI, 0.62-0.76).
“Objective measurements of sleep with short measurement intervals around retirement are needed to fully understand how quantity, quality, and timing of sleep change following retirement from work,” Myllyntausta and colleagues concluded. – by Janel Miller
Disclosures: Healio Primary Care was unable to determine the researchers’ relevant financial disclosures prior to publication.