A large Finnish study suggests that sleep in midlife may be linked to how long people remain in the workforce, with persistent sleep problems and unusually long sleep associated with a shorter working life expectancy after age 50. The findings, published online in Occupational & Environmental Medicine, indicate that the difference may be substantial for some groups, particularly people in lower-status occupations or with less education. In the most disadvantaged combinations of socioeconomic position and sleep profile, the estimated gap in working life expectancy reached several years.
The research examined whether sleep duration and sleep disturbances predicted the number of years adults could expect to remain employed between the ages of 50 and 68. Working life expectancy is a population-level measure that combines employment and exit from the workforce over time. It does not mean that every individual will work for the calculated number of years; rather, it estimates the average time that people in a particular group are expected to participate in paid employment before retirement, disability, unemployment, or another form of labor-market exit.
The investigators used data from two large Finnish observational studies. The Finnish Public Sector study included 70,339 employees followed between 2000 and 2016, approximately 80% of whom were women. The Health and Social Support study contributed data from a random sample of 6,071 working-age Finnish adults followed between 1998 and 2013, with women accounting for 54% of participants. Sleep information was taken from the first questionnaire participants completed after reaching age 50, while employment histories were obtained through national earnings and pension registers.
Participants reported both their typical nightly sleep duration and the quality of their sleep. Sleep lasting fewer than seven hours was classified as short, seven to eight and a half hours as mid-range, and nine or more hours as long. Sleep disturbances included difficulty falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, waking earlier than intended, and sleep that failed to feel restorative. These symptoms were categorized as absent, moderate, or severe according to how many nights they occurred during the previous four weeks. Moderate problems affected sleep on two to four nights per week, while severe disturbances occurred on most nights or nearly every night.
The results showed a clear association between disrupted sleep and reduced workforce participation. Compared with adults reporting no sleep disturbances, those with moderate disturbances were expected to work nearly five months less after age 50. Severe disturbances were associated with approximately eight fewer months of working life, independent of sex and broad occupational category. In the Finnish Public Sector group, people without sleep disturbances had an estimated working life expectancy of 13 years and five months. The estimate fell to 13 years for those with moderate disturbances and 12 years and 10 months for those with severe disturbances.
Long sleep was also linked to a shorter working life, although the size of the association differed between the two study populations. Among Finnish Public Sector participants, those sleeping nine or more hours per night had an estimated working life expectancy of 12 years and five months, compared with 13 years and two months among people reporting short or mid-range sleep. Compared with seven to eight and a half hours, long sleep was associated with roughly nine fewer months of expected workforce participation in this group. In the Health and Social Support sample, the corresponding difference was slightly more than 30 months.
The researchers found no consistent evidence that short sleep was associated with a shorter working life than mid-range sleep. This is important because sleep duration alone may not capture the biological or social processes that affect occupational functioning. A person sleeping fewer than seven hours may still have relatively stable, restorative sleep, while another person spending nine hours in bed may be doing so because of illness, fatigue, fragmented sleep, depression, medication effects, or an underlying sleep disorder. In this context, long sleep may be less a direct cause of workforce exit than a marker of poorer health or reduced functional capacity.
Socioeconomic position appeared to amplify the differences. The longest working life expectancy in the Finnish Public Sector data, nearly 14 years from age 50, was observed among professional women without sleep disturbances. The shortest estimate, approximately 12 and a half years, occurred among men in routine occupations who reported severe sleep problems. When occupational status or education was considered together with sleep, the gap between the most advantaged and disadvantaged groups was about one year and five months in the Finnish Public Sector study and approximately five years in the Health and Social Support study. Among participants with routine jobs or low education, long sleep was associated with the lowest estimates, around six years and five months in both datasets.
Several mechanisms could explain the associations. Chronic insomnia and non-restorative sleep can impair attention, memory, reaction time, emotional regulation, and physical recovery. These effects may make demanding work more difficult and increase the risk of sickness absence, accidents, reduced productivity, or disability retirement. Sleep problems also interact with cardiometabolic disease, chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and inflammatory processes, all of which can influence a person’s ability to continue working. Occupational conditions may further shape the relationship: shift work, irregular schedules, physically strenuous jobs, low control at work, and financial insecurity can simultaneously damage sleep and accelerate departure from employment.
The authors emphasize that the study cannot establish that disturbed or long sleep directly causes people to leave the workforce earlier. Because the analysis was observational, participants were not assigned to different sleep patterns, and the researchers could not fully account for potentially important factors such as physical and mental health, pre-existing diseases, health-related behaviors, shift work, and workplace conditions. Sleep was also measured through questionnaires rather than continuous physiological monitoring, meaning that the categories reflected participants’ reported experiences rather than laboratory diagnoses. Nevertheless, the size and consistency of the findings suggest that sleep health may be an overlooked component of strategies designed to extend healthy working lives as retirement ages rise.
The researchers say that improving sleep at midlife could be particularly valuable for workers with lower socioeconomic status, who may face the combined burden of poor sleep, physically demanding employment, limited access to care, and higher levels of chronic disease. Occupational health services could screen for persistent insomnia and refer affected workers to evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, a structured treatment that targets unhelpful sleep habits and thoughts rather than relying primarily on medication. Workplace education, healthier scheduling practices, and interventions addressing excessive workloads or shift-related disruption may also help. The findings do not suggest that everyone should aim to sleep fewer hours; instead, they highlight the importance of regular, restorative sleep and timely support when sleep problems persist.
Subject of Research: People
Article Title: Sleep disturbances and sleep duration as predictors of working life expectancy among adults aged 50 years and older in Finland
News Publication Date: 18-Aug-2026
Web References: https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2025-110766
References: Occupational and Environmental Medicine; DOI: 10.1136/oemed-2025-110766
Image Credits: Not provided
Keywords: Sleep, sleep disturbances, sleep duration, working life expectancy, workforce participation, occupational health, insomnia, aging, socioeconomic status, Finland, observational study
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