Reduction in sleep disturbances at retirement: evidence from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health

Abstract

Although retirement involves a radical change in daily activities, income, social roles and relationships, and the transition from paid work into retirement can, therefore, be expected to affect sleep, little is known about the effects of old-age retirement on changes in sleep disturbances, and how the impact of retirement may vary by gender, age and prior working conditions. This study modelled reported sleep disturbances up to nine years before to nine years following retirement in a sample of 2,110 participants from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH). Sleep disturbances over the retirement transition were modelled using repeated-measures regression analysis with Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) in relation to gender, age at retirement, working patterns (night work, full-time/part-time work), control over work hours, and psychological and physical working conditions. The analyses controlled for civil status, education level, income obtained from registers and self-rated health. Retiring from paid work was associated with decreased sleep disturbances. Greater reductions in sleep disturbances were reported by women, as well as by participants who retired before age 65 years, who were working full-time, who lacked control over their work hours and who had high psychological demands. These results, suggesting that old-age retirement from paid work is associated with reductions in disturbed sleep, pose a challenge for governments seeking to increase retirement ages.

How consistently does sleep quality improve at retirement? Prospective analyses with group‐based trajectory models

“…Longitudinal studies provide consistent evidence that sleep becomes less disturbed and more restorative after retirement (Marquié et al, 2012;Myllyntausta et al, 2018Myllyntausta et al, , 2019Straat et al, 2020;Vahtera et al, 2009). To our knowledge, evidence is still very limited when it comes to how retirement affects specific types of sleep difficulties (e.g.…”

“…Previous evidence regarding the role of the need to sleep at fixed times and the removal of work-related stressors after retirement is inconsistent. Lower pre-retirement levels of control of working hours and retiring from a full-time job have been associated with larger reductions in sleep difficulties at retirement (Marquié et al, 2012;Straat et al, 2020). Studies have observed associations between lack of work time control (WTC) and sleep disturbances (Salo et al, 2014) but not between WTC and retirement-related reductions in non-restorative sleep (Myllyntausta et al, 2019).…”

“…working day length, start and end times, work breaks, which days to work, scheduling vacation/other leave, and carrying out errands while at work (Straat et al, 2020;Tucker et al, 2016). All items were measured on a Likert-type response scale from 1 ("very little") to 5 ("very much").…”

“…People often look forward to retirement as a time when they can sleep undisturbed, no longer worried by work or having to set an alarm. Indeed, the developing picture from longitudinal studies is that retirement is associated, at least in the short-term, with both dramatic reductions in sleep difficulties and more restorative sleep (Marquié et al, 2012;Myllyntausta et al, 2018Myllyntausta et al, , 2019Straat et al, 2020;Vahtera et al, 2009). Despite the substantial sizes of these retirement-related changes, much is still not known: how universal these improvements are, how long they last, and to what degree they relate to specific aspects of the work environment that people have retired from.…”

How does work impact daily sleep quality? A within‐individual study using actigraphy and self‐reports over the retirement transition

“…Work can impair sleep quality by generating worry and rumination that extend outside of working hours, termed perseverative cognition (Clancy et al, 2020;Harvey et al, 2005;Van Laethem et al, 2018); further, objective sleep quality has been found to be lower on nights before workdays that are expected to be stressful (Petersen et al, 2013). Relief from such stress at retirement may lie behind improvements in post-retirement sleep that are largest for people with high job demands (Vahtera et al, 2009;van de Straat et al, 2019). However, one recent study was unable to observe such effects, concluding that improvements in sleep after retirement are to be explained by mechanisms other than the stress release hypothesis (Myllyntausta et al, 2019).…”