Retirement Status, Retirement Conditions, and Sleep Quality Among Older U.S. Adults: Findings from the Health and Retirement Study

Research suggests that work experiences can adversely affect sleep among U.S. adults, yet the impact of retirement has not been adequately assessed. This is an important oversight as poor sleep continues to garner attention as a public health problem and the “Baby Boomer” generation, which comprises nearly a quarter of the U.S. population, exits the paid labor force. This study ascertains the likelihood of trouble sleeping by retirement status and retirement conditions with a large, probability sample of U.S. adults over age 50. Using the 2014 wave of the Health and Retirement Study, we estimated eight separate logistic regression models—four to evaluate the effects of retirement status on 1) trouble falling asleep, 2) staying asleep during the night, 3) waking too early, and 4) feeling rested after sleep, and another four among the subset of retirees to evaluate effects of selected retirement conditions. Those who considered themselves completely retired had consistently higher odds of reporting troubled sleep compared to those who were not retired at all. The same was found for those who identified as partly retired, with the exception of not feeling rested after sleep. Among the retired, those who expressed dissatisfaction with retirement were more likely to report troubled sleep in each model compared to those who felt very satisfied. Other retirement conditions yielded mixed results. These findings suggest that trouble sleeping among older U.S. adults is patterned by retirement status, and to some degree retirement conditions.