working sucks right no one likes crawling out of bed rushing to wash and eat and then doing your
job for hours and hours however it's even worse for those of us who have to do this at night
in recent years there have been multiple studies which demonstrate how night shifts
have a negative impact on your health but why is this it must be more than a lack of sunlight
and nowhere to buy lunch at 3 a.m yeah this is the health chronicle
and in today's episode we are going to analyze the negative health effects of working night shifts
but before we begin remember to subscribe and hit the bell icon for notifications
the first and most common problem is sleep professor russell foster a sleep specialist
from oxford university says that everyone assumes their body will adapt to sleep during the day
but the reality is we don't no matter how hard we try even for someone used to night shifts
it's believed that your mental ability at 4am is similar to drinking a few units of alcohol
this might not be a problem for one or two night shifts or a late night study session
but the long-term side effects are serious if you are young or middle aged and work 10 years
of night shifts you will do the same damage as six and a half years of age related brain decline
you will lose a substantial amount of cognitive ability and it would take you about five years
of day shifts to get it back there's also a condition known as shift work sleep disorder which
is thought to affect between 10 and 40 percent of regular shift workers thanks to their issues with
sleep their concentration suffers and they are more prone to accidents and errors mood problems
reduced social skills and drug and alcohol issues so why is this well it's thanks to a part of your
brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus but for you and me let's call it the body clock
humans evolved to do stuff in the day like hunting mammoth cleaning the cave or making a spreadsheet
then at night we would sleep this pattern is built into our dna just like how some animals
like owls or foxes are programmed to do stuff at night we call this the circadian rhythm
sleep problems are not the only danger though this rhythm affects many systems including our organs
your liver produces more food digestion enzymes during the day so guess what happens when you
eat at night it stays in your blood for longer and no that doesn't mean you get bonus time to
enjoy your cupcake it's a bad thing it can lead to type 2 diabetes from the extra sugar in your blood
the extra fat can also affect your heart and you are actually 50 percent more likely to
get heart disease if you are a night worker cancer risks and obesity risk also go up too
none of this will come as a big surprise to night shift workers themselves as their
neurological system will already be sending them a very clear message that something is not right
a study from the university of buenos aires published in the journal sleep showed that
these workers have lower serotonin levels if you don't know serotonin is the feel-good hormone
the one that's released when we feel happy so it's a bad sign if your body is making less
of it this can also help create a negative feedback loop because low serotonin
also affects sleep so you'll be sad and then sleep less and feel even more sad
so are there any benefits sadly not really some people may enjoy the fact that they
don't have to get up early but for your health there is no real upside staying up late means
that you will be in bed till late morning however waking up early has its own benefits
watch our video here on five benefits of waking up early remember to hit subscribe to the health
chronicle and don't forget to hit the bell icon for notifications thanks for watching