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Economic Hardship and Sleep in Mid and Later Life

Mon, August 13, 2:30 to 4:10pm, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 100, 113A

Abstract

Older adults are more likely to have insufficient sleep and difficulty falling asleep. Little is known about how challenges of economic life in old age affect sleep. Using the Disability and Use of Time (DUST) from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), this study applied marginal structural model and the classification and regression tree technique to estimate the causal effects that exposure to economic hardship have on the probability of inadequate sleep and difficulty falling asleep. Results showed that economic hardship, irrespective of duration, had no effect on insufficient sleep among older adults. Exposure to economic hardship, however, increased the probability of having difficulty falling asleep on both weekdays and weekends especially for older adults who exposed economic hardship for five or more years. These findings suggest that economic hardship in mid and late life may reduce individuals’ abilities to initiate sleep.

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