Whether you're a morning person or night owl, working shifts that don't align with your natural productivity rhythms can have a negative impact on your health. Especially when it comes to your cognitive function.

Research in workers from diverse productive sectors and industries showed that atypical work schedules (such as night shift) could lead to poorer scores on neuropsychological tests compared to day-shift colleagues.

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The demands of shift work create a significant strain on the body. In particular, irregular working hours disrupt the circadian rhythm and result in misalignment between sleep and activity. Light, the strongest zeitgeber, suppresses melatonin and can exacerbate this problem, especially for night shift workers. The need for recuperation after shift work is essential to restore energy levels, promote restorative sleep, and maintain overall wellbeing.

A healthy diet and regular physical activity can improve resilience in shift workers, but a lack of access to social support may lead to feelings of loneliness and stress. Establishing support groups for shift workers could help individuals cope with the challenges of this type of work.

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The Circadian Rhythm

Over evolutionary time, most living things have learned to adapt to predictable daily cycles of light and darkness. These environmental cues have become internalized in circadian (circa=about; dies=day) rhythms, which synchronize internal biological and behavioral processes with the varying conditions of a 24-hour day.

The sleep-wake cycle and other circadian rhythms, including peaks and troughs in alertness, are controlled by the master clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus. These rhythms affect core body temperature, the function of neuroendocrine and autonomic systems, and memory and cognitive processes.

Shift work disrupts these natural circadian rhythms, causing misalignment between the SCN clock and our external daily schedule. This can result in night shift workers having difficulty staying awake during their night shifts and feeling sleepy at home. It can also make it difficult to adjust to the earlier sleep schedule of the morning following a night shift, and to cope with the disruptions of jetlag or daylight savings time.

The Sleep-Wake Cycle

The circadian system provides timing information for many physiological functions including the sleep/wake cycle. A combination of endogenous circadian rhythms and homeostatic processes drive alertness during the daytime and a need for consolidated sleep at night.

Shift work disrupts these systems and can result in disorientation, fatigue, reduced cognitive performance, impaired motor skills, and a decreased ability to learn. Studies of shift workers in several occupations, including police officers, nurses, and medical residents, have shown that when the sleep schedule is altered to a night or early morning shift, the work performance of these individuals declines.

Shift work can also increase the risk of accidents and errors on the job, particularly in professions that require driving or navigating hazardous environments. Several countermeasures to the adverse effects of shift work are available, including optimizing work schedules, providing adequate rest opportunity between shifts, and avoiding stimulants at work and home. Moreover, ensuring that the work environment is well-lit and quiet and reducing exposure to fatigue-inducing noise can maximize performance for shift workers.

The Brain

Prolonged exposure to shift work disturbs the sleep-wake cycle and can lead to health problems like digestive issues, obesity and depression. It can also affect cognitive performance as it interferes with the circadian rhythm, causing accelerated brain aging and a disruption in the natural sleep architecture.

This is why it is important to stick to a regular schedule, especially when it comes to sleeping. However, this is easier said than done for many people.

For the present study, participants were categorized into two groups: 1) those who had never performed shift work (NEVER shift workers), and 2) those that worked a night shift or rotating shift system including a night shift at the time of data acquisition or within the last year (PRESENT shift workers).

Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging data was obtained with a 3T Siemens Tim-Trio scanner using a magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition gradient echo sequence. For cortical thickness, surface area and subcortical gray matter volume analyses, a high-resolution T1-weighted gradient echo sequence was used.