Early retirement and better sleep

Sadly, for most people nowadays - barring lottery wins - early retirement is just a distant pipe dream. However, for those people lucky enough to be able to take it it could bring a dramatic improvement in sleep quality. Researchers from the University of Turku in Finland studied 14,714 employees of the French national gas and electricity company Electricite de France-Gaz de France who retired at an average age of 55. All of the participants had reported sleep disturbances at least once before and after their retirement. Overall the prevalence of sleep disturbance fell from 24.2% in the last year before retirement to 17.8% in the first year afterwards. The improvements in sleep were more marked in men, managers, those with demanding jobs and people who worked night shifts. Sleep disturbance got worse as people aged but although it rose again after the first year of retirement it did not reach the levels of people in their last year of work.

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/11/02/retirement-improves-sleep/9276.html