Sydney: Individuals who retire become more physically active, reduce their sitting time, are less likely to smoke, and have healthier sleep patterns, when compared with people who are still working, finds a new research.

"A major life change like retirement creates a great window of opportunity to make positive lifestyle changes -- it's a chance to get rid of bad routines and engineer new, healthier behaviours," said lead researcher Melody Ding, senior research fellow at the University of Sydney in Australia.