A third of people in their sixties go through a "late-life crisis", psychologists suggest. Just under 300 people aged over 60 in the UK completed an online survey for the research.
Of the 33% who went through a crisis, bereavement was the most common trigger, followed by personal illness or injury.
Oliver Robinson told the British Psychological Society conference that people became aware of their frailty.
As well as carrying out the poll, the researchers from the universities of Greenwich and Sussex interviewed 20 people who completed the poll.
It showed that those who reported a "crisis" had all experienced two or more stressful events that had usually affected their health or someone else’s, making them more aware of frailty and mortality.