Long working hours may harm men’s health in old age
According to a study from Finland, working long hours and skipping on sleep in midlife may lead to poorer physical health in old age.
25 years of study of about 1500 Finnish businessmen found those who worked more than 50 hours a week and slept less than 47 hours weekly when they were middle aged were in worsening physical health as old men as compared to peers who had healthier work and sleep habits when they were young.
‘The results are in line with what we hypothesized, but we were not sure if we would be able to detect these long-term associations,’ said lead author Dr Mikaela Birgitta von Bonsdorff of the University of Jyvaskyla.
According to results published in the journal Age and Ageing, researchers found that men with long work and short sleep or long work and normal sleep in midlife had poorer scores for physical functioning, vitality and general health than those with normal work and normal sleep.
Midlife smoking and self-rated poor health at that time explained some of the association with the results at older ages, but not all.
‘My thought is that official working hours are not that long today but the time that people actually work (e.g. email etc.) is not included in the official working hours and thus my thought is that people actually today work quite long hours,’ Dr von Bonsdorff said. ‘I think that this is true for several professions, particularly for white-collar jobs, businessmen, entrepreneurs and managers.’
Short sleep increases stress and strain, which are important aspects of quality of life, Dr von Bonsdorff said, and sleep problems might be related to an unhealthier lifestyle as well.
Professionals with disturbed sleep or experiencing sleep deprivation will experience physical, cognitive and emotional changes, in addition to a drop in immune function, said Dr Marco Tulio de Mello of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, who was not part of the study.
‘This is an exciting study because the follow-up is unusually long, 26 years,’ said Dr. Mika Kivimaki at University College London in the U.K. who also was not part of the study. ‘It also adds a new element to the research on long working hours as overwork in combination with short sleep captures a stressful lifestyle much better than long working hours alone,’ Dr Kivimaki said.
The effects of working life may persist into older ages and affect the quality of retirement, warned Dr Kivimaki.
‘The results indicate that it is important to rest if working long hours,’ and employers should promote healthy living habits which contribute to better sleep quality, Dr von Bonsdorff said.
Work normal and sleep normal when young to have a healthy old age – Occupational Health Physicians and HR personnel to note and promote!
