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A good night’s sleep may be essential not only for productivity but also for staying in the workforce longer. A new study suggests that sleep habits in middle age may affect how long people continue working. Researchers found that people who slept for longer periods or experienced sleep disorders tended to have shorter expected working lives after age 50.

A research team at the University of Turku in Finland analyzed data from 70,339 public-sector employees, 80% of whom were women, collected between 2000 and 2016. They also used data from a randomized study involving 6,071 adult workers conducted between 1998 and 2013. The researchers examined the relationship between sleep patterns and expected working life—the estimated number of years a person is expected to remain in the workforce from a given age.

The team analyzed participants’ responses to sleep-related questionnaires completed after age 50. Those who reported sleeping fewer than seven hours per night were classified as short sleepers, while those sleeping between seven and eight and a half hours were considered to have an average sleep duration. Those who slept nine hours or more were classified as long sleepers.

Sleep disorders were defined based on whether participants had experienced difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, waking too early, or feeling unrefreshed after sleep during the previous four weeks. Those experiencing such problems once a week or less were considered to have no sleep disorder. Experiencing symptoms two to four times a week was classified as a moderate sleep disorder, while symptoms occurring five to six times a week or almost every day were considered severe.

The researchers then used data from the Finnish Centre for Pensions to determine whether participants remained employed.

The results showed that people who slept longer tended to have shorter expected working lives. Those who slept nine hours or more per night had working lives that were up to 30 months shorter than those who slept between seven and eight and a half hours. In contrast, there was no significant difference in working life between short sleepers and those with an average sleep duration.

People with severe sleep disorders had an average expected working life of 12 years and 10 months after age 50, compared with 13 years and 5 months among those without sleep disorders—a difference of about seven months. Those with moderate sleep disorders had an expected working life of about 13 years, roughly five months shorter than people without sleep disorders, regardless of sex or occupation.

The longest expected working lives were observed among professional women without sleep disorders, at approximately 14 years after age 50. In contrast, general occupational workers who were men and had severe sleep disorders had the shortest expected working lives, at about 12 years and 6 months.

Because this was an observational study, the findings do not establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship between sleep habits and expected working life. The researchers also noted that factors such as physical and mental health, underlying medical conditions, and working conditions may have influenced the results.

Nevertheless, the researchers said that promoting healthy sleep and providing support for managing sleep disorders during middle age could help increase workforce participation as populations age. Possible approaches include cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, sleep education, and workplace health-promotion programs.

The findings were recently published in the international journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

Source : 헬스조선 (https://health.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2026/08/19/2026081902720.html)