Effects Of Working The Night Shift

A re you ready to work the night shift and get paid for it? It's the best time to make money, but it has a significant toll on your health.

According to research, working the night shift can affect your health. From headaches and exhaustion to decreased ability and even heart disease, you should be aware of the long-term effects of working the night shift. In this article, we will shed light on the adverse effects of working night shifts.

Disturb Natural Sleep

The job market never sleeps, but your body does. And it can have a major effect on your health. The longer you work at night, the more likely you will experience severe sleep disruptions that can put you at risk for several illnesses.

Your sleep system produces hormones that regulate body temperature, suppress the immune system, and promote tissue repair during the night. Working nights interfere with these necessary functions. So if you're working nights, take steps to protect your health and achieve a healthy balance between work and sleep.

Higher Chances Of Breast Cancer

It doesn't matter if you work regularly or only do a bit of night here and there; your risk of breast cancer significantly increases if you work the night shift. In addition, research shows that women who work overnight are at much greater risk.

And it turns out the issue is not just mental stress and fatigue; there is a disruption in circadian rhythm (internal body clock), which puts females at greater risk.

Depression

Working the night shift can be particularly detrimental to your mental wellbeing. This is because our circadian rhythm resets itself during sleep, and it has a big effect on how we feel the next day. In addition, our brains are biologically wired to perform best during daytime hours, meaning working at night can impact our productivity, mood, and judgment.

Higher Chances Of Heart Attack

According to a recent BMJ study, working the night shift can be especially hard on your heart health. The researchers found that people who work during the overnight hours have a seven-percent higher risk of a heart attack than other sleep-deprived employees.

The study did not explore why the risk is greater for night shift workers. Still, previous studies suggest it's because of changes in sleep habits and differences in day and nighttime patterns of hunger and metabolism.

Workplace Injury

Whether you are a night owl by nature or you work the night shift for a specific project, you're taking on a huge challenge. Everything in your body wants to sequester itself to recover from the day. It takes extra effort to fight your biochemistry and simply stay awake and active. As a result, your productivity takes a nosedive –as does your ability to focus, pay attention, and execute intricate tasks.

The effects of working the night shift can be life-threatening and risk creating significant medical and legal issues for both workers and employers if not appropriately handled.

Changes In Metabolism

People who work the night shift also called the "graveyard" shift, often experience uncomfortable and surprising symptoms. One of them is changes in metabolism. Changes in metabolism have a potentially harmful effect on health—for example, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

Vitamin D Deficiency

If you work a night shift, there's a good chance your doctor has told you that you have vitamin D deficiency. But do you know why it happens? During the day, your body can get vitamin D from sunlight. However, when you sleep during the day and work at night, you simply don’t get enough vitamin D.

Don't let an insufficient amount of vitamin D hold back your health. Instead, take steps to ensure that you're getting the right amount daily.

Obesity

You've heard about the effect of working the night shift on your metabolism. Many people think it can make you gain weight, increase blood sugar levels, reduce insulin sensitivity, etc. And the truth is that it does. Without a balanced hormonal system, your body will most likely become overweight and a candidate to develop diabetes.

Suppresses Melatonin

Sleep cycles are controlled by a hormone called melatonin, which affects levels of another hormone that controls how alert you feel.

Most night shift workers know that the working hours of 12 am to 8 am disrupt the sleep/wake cycle controlled by melatonin. By suppressing melatonin, night shifts leave you with unbalanced hormone production and ultimately ruin your health.

At the end of this article, you should have a good idea of whether or not night shift work is right for you. If you're still worried about the effects of working the night shift, you may want to talk with friends and family who work in this field to get their experiences.