Research laboratory setting, representing published occupational health research

Midlife Sleep Problems Linked to Shorter Working Lives

Healthy sleep in a person's fifties is associated with a longer working life, according to a study of more than 76,000 Finnish adults published in the BMJ journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine and reported on 18 August 2026. The researchers combined two cohorts: the Finnish Public Sector study, which followed 70,339 employees between 2000 and 2016, and the Health and Social Support study, which followed 6,071 working-age adults between 1998 and 2013. Both surveyed participants about their sleep, then tracked how many years they remained in paid work from the age of 50. In the public sector cohort, people who reported no sleep disturbances had a working life expectancy of 13 years and 5 months. Those reporting moderate disturbances averaged 13 years, and those reporting severe disturbances 12 years and 10 months. The study is observational, so it cannot show that disturbed sleep is what pushes people out of work earlier.

Long sleepers showed the widest gap

Sleep length separated the groups more sharply than disturbance did. Employees sleeping under seven hours and those in the seven to eight and a half hour range both had a working life expectancy of 13 years and 2 months, while those sleeping nine hours or more had 12 years and 5 months, around nine months fewer. The gap was far larger in the smaller Health and Social Support cohort. Occupation mattered too: the distance between professionals reporting no sleep problems and people in routine jobs reporting severe disturbances was about 1 year 5 months in the public sector data and roughly 5 years in the smaller cohort. The authors could not adjust for physical and mental health, existing conditions, health behaviours, or shift work.

What this means in practice

These are Finnish cohorts, and Finnish retirement rules, occupational health provision and workplaces are not British ones, so the year counts do not transfer to a UK reader directly. What does carry across is that long sleep, not only broken sleep, marked the group who left work soonest, and that the pattern tracked socioeconomic position. Nothing in Perqen's full product catalogue featured in this research; the authors did not look at supplements of any kind. Their own suggestion was workplace support, including cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia delivered through occupational health services.

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This article reports published news and research and is for information only. Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied diet or medical care, and no product mentioned is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Speak to your GP or pharmacist before changing what you take, especially if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or taking prescribed medicines.

Sources

Originally reported by News-Medical. This article has been reviewed by Dr Tosin.

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