Digital Journal has covered the topic of shift work and circadian rhythms regularly. Here research has shown there are higher rates of obesity and ill-health in shift workers when compared with the general population and mental illness.
The primary reason is due to disruption of the body’s internal clock, which is governed by circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms function to synchronize the activities in every living cell. Disruption to circadian rhythms affects all known organisms. The rhythms are in tune with a 24-hour cycle and are affected by day and light.
Disruption explains why shift workers often develop illnesses because they are working when the body expects to be sleeping and sleeping during the daytime.
A new line of research has looked at driving. Here scientists based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have found people who commute home after working the night shift are more prone to “sleepy” driving crashes compared with those who work a standard day shift. This is due to disruption to their sleep-wake cycles and insufficient sleep during the night.
The elevated risk came about after volunteers were recruited to take part in test drives. By using people who underwent day shift and night shift working, there was a 37.5 percent higher risk of drivers who had been working a night shift of being involved in a near fatal collision. The finding comes from U.S. data which indicates night shift workers are associated with a higher proportion of car crashes on their return home from work.
The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper is titled “High risk of near-crash driving events following night-shift work.”
