Sleep Improvements in Retirement

Research Highlight

One of the most commonly anticipated benefits of retirement is no longer having to set an alarm. Most people look forward to waking up when they want, and generally doing what they want, when they want. We also know that sleep plays a critical role in our physical and cognitive health, such as functioning of the immune system, cardiovascular health, mood, and memory.

So how do changes in sleeping patterns actually play out in retirement? Do retirees see improvements in sleep that may benefit their health?

Researchers are indeed finding signs of improvements in sleep soon after retirement, and continuing several years into retirement. Generally speaking, studies observing sleep changes both before and after retirement find that retirees are getting an average of about 20 to 30 more minutes of sleep per night [a,b]. Retirees are going to sleep later, but they are also waking up significantly later, resulting in a net increase in their sleep duration. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, sleep disturbances such as premature awakening, restless sleep, and non-restorative sleep improved after retirement [c]. 

Retirees are going to sleep later, but they are also waking up significantly later, resulting in an average of about 20 to 30 more minutes of sleep per night.

As many retirees expect, no longer being tied to work schedules and reduced stress appear to contribute to improvements in sleep duration and quality. This is evident in studies showing improvements in duration of sleep on weeknights rather than weekends [1, 2]. Also, those with an evening circadian preference (preferring to stay up later) show a more significant change in their wake-up time. These findings suggest that work schedules do require many people to wake up earlier than may be optimal with their circadian rhythms. 

In terms of reduced stress, researchers found that those who retired from high-demanding jobs were most likely to experience sleep difficulties before retirement, and also see significant improvements after. These retirees will not only experience benefits of reduced stress in general, but also from more restorative sleep and its impact on health.

So how can you also experience the benefits of better sleep in retirement? Improvements in sleep may not always come about so easily in retirement. So we outlined a few tips to keep in mind to support improvements with your sleep with retirement:

1. Don’t ditch the alarm yet...Your circadian rhythm loves predictability. So while sleeping longer certainly has its benefits, waking up at the same time each morning will help your body achieve a stable cycle of sleep with more restorative sleep. Whether or not you use an alarm clock, consider strategies that will help you wake up around the same time each day.

2. Take advantage of the early morning sunlight. Another factor that has an impact on your circadian rhythm is exposure to sunlight within 15-30 minutes of waking. So while it may be enticing to lounge around, getting out of bed and outside shortly after waking can also be an important factor in improving the quality of your nighttime sleep.

3. Keep up daytime physical activity. At Retirement Life Plan, we talk about the importance of quality over quantity when it comes to your retirement pursuits. At the same time, maintaining adequate activity levels does play a role in retirement wellbeing; it also plays a role in the quality of your sleep. Among other benefits, daytime physical activity is going to support your circadian rhythm.

4. Watch your stress levels. Although we tend to think of retirement as an extended holiday, it is not uncommon to experience some struggles in leaving work behind and adjusting to a new way of living. Be sure to reach out to friends who can provide a supportive presence if you are finding retirement to be more challenging than you expected. Also, have a look at the resources available on our website around non-financial retirement preparation. Taking steps to navigate this significant life transition is one way to help ease any stress that might be experienced in the early part of retirement.

5. Talk with your doctor about ongoing sleep disturbances. Although the research here indicates that sleep improves with retirement, some sleep conditions can significantly interfere with the quality of your sleep (e.g., sleep apnea). If you are experiencing daytime sleepiness or disturbances in nighttime sleep, make sure to check in with your doctor.

Other than that, go on to embrace the opportunity that retirement offers, and enjoy your sleep!

For more information on sleep, see:

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/circadian-rhythm

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-disorders

[1]Garefelt, J., Gershagen, S., Kecklund, G., Westerlund, H., & Platts, L. G. (2021). How does cessation of work affect sleep? Prospective analyses of sleep duration, timing and efficiency from the Swedish Retirement Study. Journal of Sleep Research, 30(e) 13157. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jsr.13157

[2]Hagen, E. W., Barnet, J. H., Hale, L. & Peppard, P.E. (2016). Changes in Sleep Duration and Sleep Timing Associated with Retirement Transitions. Sleep, 39(3): 665–673. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4763359/

[3]Peristera, P., Nyberg, A., Magnusson Hanson, L. L., Westerlund, H., & Platts, L. G. (2022). How consistently does sleep quality improve at retirement? Prospective analyses with group-based trajectory models. Journal of Sleep Research, 31 (e13474). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/jsr.13474

Research Highlight: Expectations for Gradual Retirement

A recent report by Fidelity highlights some trends around how Australians are thinking about and planning for retirement—both financially and non-financially. The survey of over 1,500 Australians (already retired and nearing retirement) reveals that most people are looking to make a more gradual transition to retirement. Nearly 9 in 10 respondents found the idea of transitioning into retirement over time appealing. Respondents are looking to retirement mostly for non-financial reasons…

“[The] top three reasons respondents give for continuing to work are: they enjoy working, it helps them maintain a sense of purpose and it allays boredom”

This statistic is a bit higher than those that have come out of other surveys exploring interest in gradual retirement; but this may also be a difference between what pre-retirees find appealing and what they are planning or expecting for their own retirement.

According to a 2017 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, roughly 29 percent of Americans ages 61 to 66, said they had planned to reduce their work hours as they transitioned to retirement. This report also points to differences in expectations for gradual retirement and reality, with only 11 percent reporting being partially retired.

The Fidelity report also highlights the role that circumstances often play in the timing of one’s retirement (and the ability to gradually retire). Common reasons for unexpected early retirement included redundancy, health issues, or caregiving demands. But perhaps most notable is the impact that such unexpected early retirement had on wellbeing.

Consistent with other research, those who felt retirement was out of their control experienced noticeably lower levels of wellbeing compared to those who felt retirement was within their control. As over half of the experienced retirees in the Fidelity survey suggested, it is critical to always have a Plan B. Developing an alternative vision can make the difference between really struggling with an unexpected retirement and adapting in order to thrive in it.

Unexpected Challenges with Retirement

Interestingly, the survey also revealed that while pre-retirees worry about money, the most common unexpected challenges reported by experienced retirees include the emotional impact of retirement and the loss of purpose and personal identity. These directly reflect some of the issues that have come out of our own research on retirement adjustment, highlighting the more personal side of the transition that is a critical part of retirement wellbeing.

Nonetheless, the benefits of retirement may still outweigh the potential challenges. With reduced stress, greater control over time, and more time for sleep, exercise, and healthy eating, many people would benefit from making this move to retirement. The key is to prepare for those common, yet often unexpected challenges.

At Retirement Life Plan, our coaching programmes and courses for coaches/professionals are based on research insights such as these, so that we can better support the wellbeing of retirees. Whether you are preparing for retirement yourself, or working with pre-retirees, we have solutions to support you.

Research Highlight: Does retirement increase risk of depression, or protect from it?

Retirement is a major life transition, which usually involves both opportunities and challenges for mental and physical health. Researchers have attempted to understand the impact retirement has on both physical and mental health, with mixed findings. Partly, it is often difficult to untangle whether retirement led to poor health, or poor health led to retirement. So there has not been real consensus on the impact of retirement on health and wellbeing. 

A recent publication in Epidemiology and Psychiatric Science reported findings from a meta-analytic review of 41 studies, examining the relationship between retirement and depressive symptoms. Meta-analysis is a statistical process that allows researchers to compile and analyze data from multiple studies, and is useful for exploring findings and identifying trends across multiple studies. So while there were mixed findings among the studies that were included in this review, pooling them together revealed a generally protective effect of retirement on the risk of depression.

“Pooled data suggested that retirement reduces by nearly 20% the risk of depression; such estimates got stronger when limiting the analysis to longitudinal and high-quality studies…”

Furthermore, while it is often assumed that men have a more difficult time with retirement than women, the authors did not find significant differences between genders in their risk of depression in retirement. This supports our own findings in reviewing research on experiences with retirement adjustment.

Other individual characteristics and circumstances, however, may play a role in the relationship between retirement and risk of depression. For instance, being pushed to retire involuntarily is consistently linked to more difficulty with retirement, and the authors in this meta-analysis also report retirement having greater impact on depressive symptoms with involuntary retirement. Additional characteristics of the retirement transition, job characteristics (e.g., time pressure, workload and physical demand), and access to resources are also likely to play a role in this association. So while the results of this meta-analysis paint a generally positive picture for retirees, there is of course a great deal of variation between people and their retirement experiences.

How might retirement protect against depression?

Retirement usually leads to increased free time, reduced stress, and opportunities for better sleep and exercise. So of course these factors may clearly contribute to improvements in mental health. It may also be that, at least in some studies, retirees are compared against those who need to continue to work for financial reasons, and perhaps financial stress is putting them at greater risk of depression.

While many people plan to continue working because they enjoy it, a significant portion of workers nearing retirement age will have to continue working for financial reasons. A 2017 survey by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies found that among workers who plan to work in retirement or past age 65, larger proportions do so because of financial reasons (83%). Only 62% of workers were confident that they would be able to fully retire with a comfortable lifestyle, and 52% reported fearing that they would outlive their savings.

Looking across time: Different trajectories for wellbeing in retirement

While it is encouraging to see research findings that point to the benefits of retirement, more work needs to be done to untangle the different trajectories for retirement—i.e., different patterns of change in wellbeing over time—and the factors that are associated with them. Mo Wang began looking at such trajectories, and identified three distinct patterns of change in wellbeing in large samples of retirees. The majority of retirees experienced little change in wellbeing, some experienced a temporary decline in wellbeing, and a smaller number of retirees experienced an increase in wellbeing. Viewing retirement experiences as diverse and evolving, rather than positioning it as purely good or bad, allows us to focus on individual circumstances and characteristics that shape this chapter in life after work.

At Retirement Life Plan, our coaching programmes and courses for coaches/professionals are based on research insights such as these, so that we can better support the wellbeing of retirees. Whether you are preparing for retirement yourself, or working with pre-retirees, we have solutions to support you.

Research Highlight: Social Involvement and Physical Health

Retirement can be an opportunity to improve health, with more time for (better) sleep, eating healthier, and exercise. In fact, maintaining health is a top priority for retirees, next to finances. But studies are starting to suggest that we need to look beyond diet and exercise for living a long and healthy life in retirement.

A 2016 study by researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia found that retirees’ social involvement was comparable to physical exercise in terms of its association with physical health and mortality.* These researchers compared the number of social groups both before and after retirement: “In showing that it is group memberships following (rather than prior to) retirement that determine long-term life and health quality, findings also indicate that group memberships play a unique role in the transition to retirement by affecting people's health and quality of life once they cease formal employment.”

We know that social involvement is a critical part of general wellbeing, and now we are seeing more and more evidence of the impact it has on physical health (including brain health). With so much of our time spent at work, our social lives tend to also revolve around work. This means that, with retirement, we need to seriously consider changes to social networks and the quality of social interactions, in order to maintain or improve wellbeing following retirement. For some, retirement will mean leaving behind toxic relationships and having more time for healthy and supportive relationships. For others, it will mean leaving behind relationships that have very much been a part of one’s sense of community, belonging, and sense of identity.

At Retirement Life Plan, our research-based programmes take a deep dive into issues such as this, to ensure that the transition to retirement is about supporting enjoyment and wellbeing. Whether you are preparing for retirement yourself, or working with pre-retirees, we have solutions to support you.

*Steffens, N. K., Cruwys, T., Haslam, C., Jetten, J., & Haslam, S. A. (2016). Social group memberships in retirement are associated with reduced risk of premature death: Evidence from a longitudinal cohort study. BMJ Open, 6 (2). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010164