How much sleep you get in midlife could be connected to more than just your health, a new study suggests
The findings, published in Occupational & Environmental Medicine, found that people aged 50 and older who experienced severe sleep disturbances, or who regularly slept nine hours or more per night, had a shorter working life expectancy, defined as the average number of years a person is expected to remain in the workforce between ages 50 and 68
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that adults aged 45 to 64 are among the most affected, with 31 percent reporting fewer than seven hours of sleep on average
“Long sleep duration is more uncommon at mid-life than short sleep duration,” Saana Myllyntausta, of the University of Turku in Finland and lead author of the study, told Newsweek
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“Short sleep duration may be explained by people not having enough time to sleep, among many other things, of course, whereas the reasons for long sleep duration are usually more complex, such as underlying health conditions, e.g. sleep apnea, stress, or fatigue.”
Therefore, some underlying health conditions may explain the long sleep duration and reduced working life expectancy
Myllyntausta said: “It should be taken into account that there were only very few participants, 2 to 5 percent, with long sleep duration; these are possibly a highly selected group, and the results must be treated with caution.”
The researchers analyzed data from two Finnish studies: the Finnish Public Sector (FPS) study, which included 70,339 public-sector employees; and the Health and Social Support (HeSSup) study, which included 6,071 working-age adults
Participants reported their sleep patterns after turning 50. Sleep duration was categorized as short (fewer than seven hours), midrange (7 to 8.5 hours), or long (nine hours or more). Researchers also assessed sleep disturbances, including difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, waking too early, and nonrestorative sleep
- No sleep disturbances: Working life expectancy of 13 years and 5 months.
- Moderate sleep disturbances: Nearly five fewer months in the workforce (13 years of working life expectancy).
- Severe sleep disturbances:Around eight fewer months in the workforce (12 years and 10 months of working life expectancy)
- Long sleep (9+ hours): Associated with a working life expectancy of 12 years and 5 months, compared with 13 years and 2 months for those sleeping 7 to 8.5 hours.
- Longest working life expectancy: Nearly 14 years, among professional women with no sleep disturbances
- Shortest working life expectancy: Nearly 12.5 years, among men in routine jobs with severe sleep disturbances
Myllyntausta told Newsweek: “The shortest working life expectancy was observed among men and women in routine occupations with sleep problems. These included occupations such as cleaners, maintenance workers, and construction workers
“However, we did not compare working life expectancy in more detail across different occupations and industries.”
Nightly sleep of nine hours or more was associated with around nine fewer months in the workforce among FPS participants and just over 30 fewer months among HeSSup participants
There was no clear evidence of a difference in working life expectancy between people who slept less than seven hours and those who slept seven to 8.5 hours
A 2024 surveyby The Harris Poll for the Transamerica Institute and Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, involving more than 10,000 U.S. adults, found the median retirement age was 62
More than half of retirees (55 percent) said they stopped working before age 65, while only 14 percent retired at age 65. Retirement was most commonly associated with positive feelings such as freedom and being stress-free, although some respondents also linked it to healthdecline, financial insecurity and boredom
The researchers cautioned that the study was observational and cannot prove that sleep problems directly cause people to leave the workforce sooner. They also said they were unable to account for a range of potentially important factors, including physical and mental health, underlying medical conditions, health behaviors and working conditions such as shift work
However, the researchers concluded that improving sleep health during midlife could help support workforce participation in later years, particularly among people with lower socioeconomic status
“Promoting sleep health and providing support for managing sleep disturbances at midlife may be especially important for those with a lower socioeconomic status when aiming to increase workforce participation with advancing age,” the researchers wrote
“This could include cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia delivered by occupational health services or workplace interventions, such as educational or health promotion interventions for sleep.”
Myllyntausta S, Heikkilä K, Pentti J, et al. Sleep disturbances and sleep duration as predictors of working life expectancy among adults aged 50 years and older in Finland. Occupational and Environmental MedicinePublished Online First: 18 August 2026. doi: 10.1136/oemed-2025-110766
Contact Newsweek editors on this story:Charlotte NisbetandJames Debens
