RETIREMENT has often been seen negatively, leading to social isolation and depression. But new research by UniSA has a different picture, with more sleep, more TV, and a much more enjoyable life.
RETIREMENT means 30 minutes more sleep, 30 minutes more TV and an extra hour of chores, UniSA research reveals.
And no matter what you’re doing, life is much more enjoyable.
UniSA health sciences Professor Timothy Olds said the results challenged the idea that retirement was a threat to wellbeing, leading to social isolation and depression.
“We found a consistent elevation in mood, in wellbeing and happiness across that time, across all of our participants, there was hardly one that was less happy,” he said.
“They maintained their overall energy expenditure levels and overall physical activity levels,
so they didn’t degenerate into couch potatoes sitting there watching television getting bored out of their brain, just quite the opposite. It was a very positive experience for everybody.”
The three-year Life After Work study by UniSA PhD student Judy Sprod was a collaborative effort with the University of Queensland, funded by the Australian Research Council.
Using wearable technology, researchers tracked 141 volunteers, aged between 53 and 70, from Adelaide and Brisbane through retirement, from three months beforehand to a year afterwards. They compared activity and enjoyment at three months pre-retirement, to three, six and 12 months post-retirement.
A wearable, waterproof accelerometer recorded physical activity including sleep and time spent sitting. Volunteers then self-reported their use of time and how much they enjoyed each activity on a scale of 0 (hated it) to 10 (loved it).
Professor Olds said overall enjoyment of life spiked at retirement and remained elevated for the duration of the study.
“It’s not that they started doing the activities they liked more, they just got more enjoyment out of doing the same activities,” he said.
“The most enjoyable domains were physical activity and social interactions. The two most enjoyable activities were playing with children and sex; the least enjoyable was cleaning the bathroom.”
Previous research had suggested the big rise in happiness or enjoyment of life at retirement was short-lived, Professor Olds said.
“Normally most studies say that fades away after 12 months, but it was not true,” he said.
“After 12 months they were much happier than they were when they were working.”
The study revealed “a very common pattern” in how retired people used their extra hours.
“The sleep pattern was very consistent,” Professor Olds said.
“They got up half an hour later, almost every one of them. But they went to bed at the same time. That suggests to me people are spending less time sleeping than they want, probably less than they need and retirement is the time to get back to optimal sleep patterns.”
One hour went to chores – “cleaning up three decades of neglect at home” – and there was about 30 minutes more time spent watching TV, a bit more time socialising, a bit more time being physically active and a bit more time reading.
Time spent alone was about the same – volunteers “just swapped their office buddies for their spouse or partner”.
The research team plans to continue following the volunteers through the next phase of retirement.