At night, our body asks for rest, and during the day it wants to be activated This is a maxim of chronobiology, the science that studies the biological schedules to which our organism is subjected, but the way of life promoted by our societies based on the division of labor seems to, at times, not take this phenomenon into account..
Now… to what extent is it a problem to “force” our biological clock due to the demands of our job?
There are many jobs in which night shifts exist, such as in the health sector and the security sector. Having to be awake at night and sleep during the day can cause a lot of metabolic stress if not managed well and, as a result, there can be alterations in our health.
Today Let’s see how shift work affects our health and we will see what can be done to alleviate the effects of night work schedules.
Normally, during the hours of greatest sunlight, our body is prepared to remain active; this is because There are a series of neuroendocrine mechanisms that predispose us to approach a “state of alert” more or less and to have a greater ability to concentrate on specific tasks.
Thus, during the day, our nervous system and our network of hormone-secreting glands are coordinated so that our psychological state allows us, as far as possible, to take advantage of the potential of an environment bathed in sunlight, in which there is a lot of things to do.
This changes when night comes, when he prepares to rest. Our sleep-wake cycle is strongly determined by the hours of sunshine, with the light of the sun regulating the production of melatonin, a hormone responsible for regulating sleep itself and which induces us to sleep when night falls.
However, It often happens that in certain work environments such as healthcare, one cannot always go to sleep when it is night Especially hard is the world of doctors and nurses, where emergencies do not rest and, therefore, health workers cannot afford it either. There always has to be people who can care for patients and, therefore, in the health sector there are different shifts, the worst of which is the night shift since it forces the body to do just the opposite of what it should, work when It’s time to sleep.
But, in general, the demands of a world increasingly oriented towards the global economy and towards the specialization of tasks make that many jobs go hand in hand with the need to adapt to shifts some of which take place in the middle of the night.
Possible physical and mental consequences of shift work
Our body is a biological machine that, when forced, begins to show alterations due to the metabolic stress to which we subject it , especially because we rest and eat at times that were not expected. This is especially exhausting if we are one of those who change work shifts every now and then, since we make our body have to constantly set the biological clock.
All of this brings with it several alterations, among which we can highlight:
Burnout syndrome is of special mention (or Burnout Syndrome), a psychological disorder manifested by many workers who are physically and psychologically exhausted by their jobs, something that those who constantly change work shifts are likely to suffer from. Because they are exhausted in all aspects of their life, burned out workers are more likely to make mistakes especially at night when you already have lower performance and worse concentration and reflexes.
In the long term, long night shifts have greater repercussions. According to research carried out by Dr. Eva Schernhammer and colleagues with 75,000 nurses and carried out over 22 years, it appears that shift workers, over 5 years, were 10% to 19% more likely to die from anything , varying depending on the disease. What this research came to say is that there was a significantly increased risk of dying from diseases such as heart disease, cancer, obesity and any other medical condition in this type of population.
The measures to take to prevent shift work from affecting our health depend on the type of night shifts and the frequency with which we do them It should be said that it is preferable for night shifts to be short and to have them only one day a week.
In these cases, the best thing to do is to continue adapting to the daytime rhythm of life, avoiding going directly to sleep at the end of the night shift. It is better to hold on a little and stay awake until night falls, going to sleep first thing in the evening and thus better maintaining biorhythms.
If you always have the night shift (for example, night guard) It is best to try to maintain that schedule even on possible holidays The best thing to do is to try to make three or four hours of sleep coincide with what we usually do the rest of the week, in order to be able to rest and not feel so tired during the hours of the day when we are going to be awake. This way you can achieve a certain balance between your personal and work life, although it must be said that working at night every day is difficult.
The worst option is to have two day shifts, two afternoon shifts and two night shifts. In this case, we experience a work situation halfway between day and night, which is very complicated. Even so, you have to try to live with daytime hours as much as possible. If we have two nights in a row, we must try to go to sleep in the morning, at the end of the first night shift, or else we will start the next night shift very tired. To rest it will be necessary to create a space where we are well isolated from the sun, with the blinds drawn or using an eye mask.
Whatever our case, It is worth mentioning the importance of exercise, a great stabilizer of the biological rhythm And because it is so effective, it is recommended for cases of jet lag. If we move while we work the night shift we will be able to stay awake and not lose concentration, having a more activating effect than caffeinated drinks.
We must also monitor our diet, since maintaining a healthy diet is not only a protective factor against mental and physical health problems, but will also help us better manage the effects of night shifts. An example of this is foods with tyrosine, an amino acid present in cheese, ham, eggs and whole-grain bread that helps produce two important neurotransmitters to keep us awake: dopamine and norepinephrine.
Other foods that are ideal for regulating our sleep, especially for falling asleep, are those that contain tryptophan. This is an amino acid that helps produce serotonin and melatonin, the neurotransmitters that prepare us for sleep and that our body secretes naturally at dusk. Some foods that contain tryptophan are fruits such as bananas, nuts, chicken, turkey, fish, and leafy vegetables.
On the other hand, It is very important to modify our meal times as little as possible In this way we will minimize the impact that working with shift schedules will have on our physiological and psychophysical processes. It may be useful to have food prepared in cases where you do not have time to cook while respecting your schedule, although the ideal is for the food to be as fresh as possible.
