Few people in the healthcare industry are fortunate enough to work a standard 9-to-5 work shift, because health problems don’t just occur during normal working hours. Oftentimes nurses and doctors work inconsistent 12-hour, 14-hour or even 24-hour shifts to ensure patients get the care they need, but new research suggests that could be taxing to their health.
According to researchers out of Texas A&M University, workers who work irregular shifts could be at an elevated risk for ischemic strokes.
To determine the effects of irregular work shifts on a person’s health, researchers conducted a three-year study analyzing the effects of work shifts on our circadian clocks.
“What our research focuses on is our internal body clocks, our 24-hour circadian clocks, which exists within cells throughout the body,” said Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine professor David Earnest. “We were looking at the implication of how the organization of our bodies varies by this clock. Time is important in human health.”
The Implications of Irregular Shifts
Researchers weren’t interested in how the health of second and third shift workers compared to that of first shift workers, but instead, they were curious about the health impact of working irregular shifts.
“If you’re on a rotating shift — working 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. one week and 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. the next — that’s the worst,” Earnest said. “But if you’re working the graveyard shift from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and you’re doing that constantly for years, you can minimize the risk by maintaining the same sleep-wake patterns and meal patterns not only during the work week, but during the weekend as well.”
The study actually analyzed irregular sleep patterns in animal counterparts. For the study, researchers looked at the difference between incidence of strokes in animals that were placed in either regular sleep cycles or those comparable to a shift worker’s. Researchers found that rats with the irregular sleep schedules were at a higher risk of stroke compared to those rats who kept a regular sleep cycle, and the findings were more pronounced in male rats. The team of researchers believe the presence of estrogen in a female’s body helps act as a natural defense against disrupted circadian rhythm.
Earnest said the findings aren’t supposed to scare shift workers, but it should serve as a reminder to employers and employees of the benefits of trying to stick to a consistent sleep schedule.
“It’s not intended to be scary, it’s just an acknowledgment of the situation,” Earnest said. “The importance is public and industry awareness. This is a risk factor that we need to consider, and part of that is about how you can accommodate this and minimize it.”