Working on night shifts is understood to cause health issues including heart disease, diabetes and obesity. A latest study has found that it might affect brain health too.
The most recent study from York University in Canada says working on the night shift may cause cognitive impairments and memory loss in middle-aged and older adults. The night shift refers to working outside the standard 9 a.m. to five p.m. working hours.
Researchers conducted cognitive function tests on 7,811 participants and evaluated them based on self-reported details about employment and work schedules.
Around 21% reported doing a little type of shift work during their profession. When researchers compared the values of cognitive tests, they found people exposed to nighttime shift work of their current job or during their longest tenure had higher rates of cognitive impairment than those that only did daytime work.
The findings suggest working on night shifts causes 79% higher rates of cognitive impairment in people.
“The study findings suggest a possible link between shift work exposure and cognitive function impairment. We speculate that disruptive circadian stimuli may play a task in neurodegeneration contributing to cognitive impairment; nonetheless, additional studies are needed to substantiate the association between shiftwork and cognitive impairment, in addition to any physiological pathways that underlie the mechanism,” the researchers said in a news release.
Researchers consider shift work disrupts the circadian rhythm in middle-aged and older adults and this affects their cognitive function.
Circadian rhythm is a 24-hour cycle that is an element of the body’s internal clock, which gets reset day-after-day by the sun’s cycle. Nevertheless, an excessive amount of or too little sunlight exposure can disrupt the circadian rhythm. The disruption can result in insomnia and mental health issues.
Studies show that disruption of the body’s internal clock also can result in chronic diseases, depression, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular problems and headache disorders.
Published by Medicaldaily.com