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If you re over 40, working more than 25 hours a week could be affecting your
intelligence, new research suggests.
By Georgina Kenyon
18 July 2016
Don t do an IQ test after a full week s work if you are 40 years or older. You
could be disappointed.
If you re over 40, working more than 25 hours of work a week could be impairing
your intelligence, according to a study released in February by researchers for
the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research in Australia.
The team conducted reading, pattern and memory tests in more than 6,000 workers
aged over 40, to see how the number of hours worked each week affects a person
s cognitive ability.
Excessively long working hours can cause fatigue and physical and/or
psychological stress, which potentially damage cognitive functioning
Working 25 hours a week (part time or three days a week) was the optimum amount
of time spent working a week for cognitive functioning, while working less than
that was detrimental to the agility of the brain for both men and women, the
study found.
Work can stimulate brain activity and can help maintain cognitive functions
for elderly workers, the lose it or use it hypothesis , said lead researcher
Colin McKenzie, a professor of economics at Keio University in Tokyo.
But at the same time, excessively long working hours can cause fatigue and
physical and/or psychological stress, which potentially damage cognitive
functioning.
But why is age 40 the turning point for the mind?
According to McKenzie, our fluid intelligence , which is how well we process
information, starts declining around the age of 20 and crystallised
intelligence , or the ability to use skills, knowledge and experience starts
decreasing after 30 years of age. McKenzie said that by age 40, most people
perform less well at memory tests, pattern recognition and mental agility
exercises.
By age 40, most people perform less well at memory tests, pattern recognition
and mental agility exercises
As many countries have already increased their retirement ages, delaying when
people are eligible to start receiving pension payments, McKenzie s latest
findings on cognitive fatigue are important.
Work can be a double-edged sword, in that it can stimulate brain activity, but
at the same time, long working hours and certain types of tasks can cause
fatigue and stress which potentially damage cognition, he said.
The science behind it
McKenzie s findings suggest that although economics may now be forcing us to
work much longer than in previous generations, biologically and emotionally our
minds may not be designed for the stress and repetition of working
nine-to-five, five days a week when we are over 40.
Previous studies have shown that workers of various ages doing overtime can
suffer chronic stress, cognitive impairment and also mental illness. One 1996
study from the Boston University School of Public Health indicated that
overtime work had adverse effects on the mental health of employees in the
automobile industry, such as on the assembly line in a factory.
McKenzie s research differs in that his team has found that such health and
cognitive issues can occur at a much lower threshold than previously thought
that is, in people over 40 working a regular week, rather than doing overtime.
Sandwich years are when many adults have at least one person to look after, a
child or an elderly parent, on top of working full-time
The negative effects of stress on the mind are well-documented in neurological
research. Stress affects cognitive functioning primarily through hormones, in
particular, steroid hormones and the stress hormone, cortisol, in the brain
which in turn can affect short-term memory, concentration, inhibition and
rational thought.
But there may be other factors at play as to why 40 seems to be a critical
turning point.
McKenzie s team is now looking into the driving factors behind their research
such as the sandwich years when many adults have at least one person to look
after, a child or an elderly parent, on top of working full-time.
That creates a job on top of a job, where the person rarely gets a break.
According to the US National Alliance for Caregiving in a survey conducted last
year a typical caregiver in the US is a 49-year-old employed female, currently
caring for a 69-year-old female relative who needs care because of a long-term
physical condition. She has been providing care for four years on average,
spending 24.4 hours a week in a care role, on top of her work and other family
responsibilities.
The sleep factor
Sleep also plays a role in being able to endure a full week of work. Until
recently, high achievers often prided themselves on getting very little sleep.
Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher used to say she could work
effectively on only four hours sleep a night though archive video footage
captures her snoozing during the day. Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of
the Huffington Post, claimed too she used to sleep around five hours a night
until she realised it was bad for her health, now calling sleep deprivation the
new smoking .
More than seven hours sleep a night is recommended for people over 26 years
But how much sleep should one get? The US National Sleep Foundation recommends
more than seven hours sleep a night for people over 26 years.
Learning and memory depend on sleep and recreation, according to Karl Ericsson,
professor of psychology at Florida State University. McKenzie s research isn t
dissimilar to Ericsson s.
Restful sleep is critical to high levels of performance, Ericsson said.
One size doesn t fit all
Ericsson s research also supports McKenzie s premise that a 40-hour week isn t
optimal for high performance. Ericsson s research, however, isn t age specific
but rather looks at the total number of hours optimal per day, each week, for
high performance.
Expert performers engaged in practice for 21-35 hours per week but no more than
three to five hours per day
We found that expert performers engaged in practice for 21-35 hours per week
but no more than three to five hours per day, Ericsson said.
Under complete freedom to work, these individuals did not spend more than
those weekly totals, suggesting that this amount of effort was judged to be
optimal for them.
A need to work
It s all well and good, however, to discuss how much better we would be if we
worked less than a 40-hour week in an office, but for many people who need the
income to survive, it s not a viable financial option. Many over 40s also
wouldn t dream of working less than a 40-hour week, given the option, as they
say it gives them a necessary stimulus, calling the research overblown.
Richard Salisbury, age 58, who lives in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney in
Australia is one of them. Having worked both part time and full time for
himself and for companies in-house as an information technology manager, he
rejects the notion that less is more.
In fact I found that I dealt with demands on my time more easily as I gained
experience or just became older, Salisbury said.
I find the idea of a 25-hour threshold more than novel, he said. The vast
majority of people with whom I worked had no noticeable impact on their
cognitive ability by doing a 35- or 40-hour week.
Penny Evans, a 50-year-old policy adviser at a charity in London, works four
days a week now but used to work 25 hours a week at the same charity, is of two
minds as to whether three days (25 hours a week) or four days a week is best
for performance and anxiety.
Three days a week is great for work-life balance, especially when you have
children at home but you are likely to fall out of touch and possibly
sidelined. Four days a week means I feel pretty much fully connected to my team
but I have an extra day off that helps me deal with other responsibilities.
The key, Evans said, is having flexibility. The stress of her job is
manageable, she said, helped by fairly widespread acceptance in the sector that
employees should leave the office by 18:00.
But in terms of the ideal amount of hours at work each week, it is difficult
to say. When young and wholly committed with minimal other responsibilities, I
seemed to thrive on working flat out but not sure how that would feel nowadays
with everything so incredibly fast with email and social media.
Healthy work
In last year s Britain s Healthiest Company awards, that were supported by the
University of Cambridge in the UK (which didn t include NGOs), sports goods,
pharmaceutical and IT companies that topped the list for healthiest companies.
All allowed time away from the desk and the opportunity to stay physically
healthy. For example, flexible hours at some of these companies allow employees
to leave work early and some like Sweaty Betty provide exercise classes at
lunchtime.
But Carol Black, principal of Newnham College, University of Cambridge and
chair of the Britain s Healthiest Company Advisory Group that supports the
awards, isn t so sure that older workers need less contact hours a week to
function well.
In her view: The most important thing about work is that it should be good
work . If it is good, it does not matter whether full-or part-time.