A new study reveals that the over 40s should be taking it easy.
When you think of Australia it instantly conjures up images of hammocks, long sandy beaches and afternoons that seem to go on forever.
The ‘laid-back’ way of Australian life has been revealed in a study published in the Melbourne Institute Worker Paper series which stated that people over 40 should only work a three day week, in order to get the best results from workers.
The study was conducted at Keio University and involved 3,000 Australian men and 3,500 Australian women, whose working habits were scrutinized along with cognitive behaviors.
They were tested on their ability to learn new information and how well they managed to ‘think’ about tasks in correlation with how many hours per week they worked.
The study found conclusively that those who were working 25 hours weeks performed significantly better that people who worked 55 hours a week.
Tiredness is thought to be one of the most debilitating modern ‘diseases’. Not getting enough sleep can make a person seriously ill and can affect all other aspects of their lives.
Commuting for yours to work, and long and stressful working days have produced a society of people who are killing themselves to get the hours in.
Study author Professor Colin McKenzie noted:
“Many countries are going to raise their retirement ages by delaying the age at which people are eligible to start receiving pension benefits. This means that more people continue to work in the later stages of their life.
“The degree of intellectual stimulation may depend on working hours. Work can be a double-edged sword, in that it can stimulate brain activity, but at the same time long working hours can cause fatigue and stress, which potentially damage cognitive functions.
“We point out that differences in working hours are important for maintaining cognitive functioning in middle-aged and elderly adults. This means that, in middle and older age, working part-time could be effective in maintaining cognitive ability.”
Modern day epidemics such as stress and anxiety could all be slashed with a reduction in working hours, and as this study highlights, probably an increase in productivity.
