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Changes in social zeitgebers across the lifespan affect the interaction between biological and social clocks, potentially contributing to social jetlag. Extant literature suggests a reduction in social jetlag given declining social obligations occurring after retirement, but is limited to self-reported methods and cross-sectional designs. Leveraging longitudinal and ecologically valid data from consumer sleep technology, we analysed objective sleep data from 2439 users of the polysomnography-validated SleepScore mobile application, encompassing 500,415 total nights recorded. We examined the relationship between age as a continuous variable, age as a proxy for retirement status, and social jetlag. Additional linear models were employed to assess the effect of self-reported chronotype, average reported daily caffeine, alcohol and stress on social jetlag. There was a significant negative association between overall age and social jetlag (β = -0.64, t = -9.90, p 0.05). Thus, social jetlag decreases across the lifespan, and its reduction appears to be amplified post-retirement even after accounting for behavioural factors.
Gottlieb et al. (Wed,) studied this question.