Retirees typically get up at 8.30am, giving them an additional one-and-a-half to two hours' sleep than their younger, still-in-work counterparts. Most over-60s do this daily, rising at the same time at weekends too, meaning every day is an opportunity for a lie-in.
Shifting sleep schedule: As people age, the body's circadian rhythms actually shift forward in time. This shift is called a phase advance. Many older adults experience this phase advance as getting tired earlier in the afternoon and waking up earlier in the morning.
“The stereotype of most seniors going to bed at 8 p.m., sleeping very lightly, and being unduly sleepy during the day may be quite inaccurate, suggesting that 60 really is the new 40.” Researchers based the study on extensive telephone interviews with nearly 1,200 retired seniors in western Pennsylvania.
The quality of sleep also improves, as retired people experience less early morning awakenings or nonrestorative sleep, unlike in their last working years. When people retire from work life, they sleep approximately 20 minutes longer than before retirement.
"Most people hit their deepest sleep between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.," says WebMD sleep expert Michael Breus, PhD, D, ABSM, "so it's very hard to wake up during that time."
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple: 7 hours (9:30pm — 4:30am) Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Microsoft: 7 hours (12am — 7am) Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group: 5–6 hours (12–5/6am) Jack Dorsey, Co-founder of Twitter: 7 hours (10:30pm — 5:30am)
Retirees enjoy over seven hours of leisure time per day, according to 2019 data from the American Time Use Survey. They use their newfound free time in a variety of ways, including taking up new hobbies, relaxing at home, watching TV and lingering over daily activities. Many retirees also continue to work or volunteer.
The average length of retirement: 18 years
That gives a typical retiree a retirement that lasts from about age 63 to about age 81.
While a 30- to 90-minute nap in older adults appears to have brain benefits, anything longer than an hour and a half may create problems with cognition, the ability to think and form memories, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
so don't be afraid of an earlier bedtime. Find your child's “sleep sweet spot”, then stick to it – for babies younger than 12 weeks, bedtime should be around 9PM to 10PM. Babies older than 12 weeks do best with bedtime around 7PM to 8PM.
If your school or work schedule requires you to be up between 5:00 and 7:00 a.m., these are the suggested bedtimes: School-age children should go to bed between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. Teens should try to go to bed between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. Adults should try to go to sleep between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.
According to their internal body clock, most older adults need to go to sleep around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. and wake up at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. Many people fight their natural inclination to sleep and choose to go to bed several hours later instead.
Age, Life Cycle and Evaluations of Personal Life
Fully 71% of those under age 50 expect their lives to be better in 10 years than they are today, as do 46% of those ages 50-64. By contrast, only about a fifth of adults ages 75 and older (19%) expect their lives to be better in the future than they are today.
Sleeping well can lower blood pressure, relax blood vessels and improve blood flow, bringing nutrients—and a healthy color—to the skin. Sleep also slows the aging of the heart and blood vessels. Poor circulation and arterial aging are major contributors to the appearance of aging on the skin and hair.
Sixty is the most popular age to retire early, according to new research from Aviva which reveals the key steps people have taken to embrace early retirement and examines the costs and benefits of doing so. One in four (25%) are planning to celebrate their 60th birthday by leaving work behind.
Men responding to the early retirement offer were 2.6 percentage points less likely to die over the next five years than those who did not retire early. (Too few women met the early retirement eligibility criteria to be included in the study.) The Dutch study echoes those from other countries.
What did retirees miss most? According to the study, 65 percent said they most missed interacting with co-workers, friends or students at work.
For many older adults, boredom is their worst enemy in retirement. Sometimes retirement feels like being stuck in a limbo of procrastination with lots of free time (or lack of free time, believe it or not) but not enough motivation to actually get up and do all of those things you dreamed of.
The average person goes to bed at 11:41pm and wakes up at 7:20am, but according to experts who studied the sleep habits of 20,000 Americans, they found people who are most intelligent stay up later. So, what time? According to the report, the smartest peeps go to bed at 12:29am and wake up at 7:52am.
The peak time for waking up is between 6 and 6:30am. Twenty-three percent of our sample rises in that half-hour, and this is the point when more than half of the nation's potential audience is now awake. Another 26% rise between 6:30 and 7:30 – and now most all respondents are awake.
Albert Einstein is said to have slept 10 hours per night, plus regular daytime naps. Other great achievers, inventors, and thinkers – such as Nikola Tesla, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Leonardo da Vinci, and Sir Isaac Newton – are said to have slept between two and four hours per day.