Recession Leads to More Sleepless Nights, Study Claims 

By Martin Beckford, www.telegraph.co.uk

September 4, 2009

United Kingdom

Twice as many people approaching retirement suffer sleepless nights during a recession, according to new research. 

A study of over-50s carried out during Britain’s last economic downturn found that thousands more were left lying awake as they worried about money and losing their jobs. 

Academics say it is likely the current recession is also causing people to lose sleep. 

In the study, Alex Dregan from the University of Surrey looked at experiences of insomnia reported by more than 30,000 older people in England from 1984 to 2006, captured in the Health and Activity Lifestyle Survey and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. 

He found that the proportion of those aged between 57 and 63 who lay awake worrying at night doubled during the recession in the early 1990s, from 10 per cent in 1984 to 20 per cent in 1991. It later fell back to 13 per cent in 1998, after the economy had picked up again. 

In addition, the proportion of people aged between 50 and 56 who experienced sleeplessness during the last recession rose to 23 per cent from 15 per cent at the time of the Miners’ Strike. 

The rise was less pronounced among the over-64s, who were more likely to have already retired. 

Mr Dregan, whose paper is being presented to the British Sociological Association medical sociology conference in Manchester on Friday, believes the most likely explanation for the rise in sleeplessness during the early 1990s was the economic downturn. 

He said: “This was supported by data analysis which found that money worries were the main cause of lack of sleep in 1991 but not in other years, where concerns over health and other issues were stronger. 

“This accounted for why those in their late 60s and 70s lost less sleep during the recession, as the financial problems caused by a fear of redundancy did not exist as they were beyond retirement. Those in their 50s were more affected because they were further from retirement and would struggle to find another job.” 

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