How Working In Night Shift Is Taking A Toll On Your Health?

Lately, many organisations have started collaborating with foreign companies owing to which they need to adopt the 24/7 working pattern. These companies are offering lucrative packages to their employees so that they don’t refuse to work in the evening and night shifts. With increased facilities,  incentives and home pick and drop facilities, more and more employees are ready to work in night shifts as they perceive that the rest taken in the night will be now taken in the day.

Working in nights shift was already common in the western culture but it is in the last decade that people are responding positively for working in night shifts. Many people who are either studying or are on vacations prefer night shifts as they are a good source of pocket money. There are some people too who have to work in late night due to poor financial conditions.

But have your ever thought what is the impact of working in night shift on your health? It can be clearly said that the impact is not at all positive. In fact, you must first understand why all people universally follow the pattern of waking up in the morning, heading for work and coming back in the evening and sleeping at night. Many scientific studies have proved that rising with the sun and sleeping after sunset and working during the day is the best way to keep your body and mind in good condition or else you may have a disorganized lifestyle and you may be prone to suffer from many diseases and frequent mood swings. To know how working in night shift is taking a toll on your health, read the reasons listed below and ensure that you know how to manage yourselves while working in night shift:

1. Disturbs Your Sleep Pattern

Working at night completely spoils your sleep pattern as you are forced to fulfil your quota of sound sleep during the day. During the daytime, you cannot really enjoy a peaceful sleep due to noises and even due to sunlight. As per a survey, people who work in night shifts are capable of sleeping for less than six hours a day, due to which they suffer from insufficient sleep. Many times, inability to sleep during the day can make them suffer from insomnia. Also night shift employees are more likely to experience reduced serotonin (a hormone which makes you feel good and effects your sleep pattern) levels.

2. Unintentional Weight Gain

Medical studies have claimed that working in night shift is against the biological clock of the body system and sleeping less or against the will of your body can cause a steep rise in the weight and you may even suffer from obesity in the long run. You work at a time when you actually need to sleep and sleep during the day when you have lot of disturbances around. This means that you are hardly able to get a refreshing sound sleep. Your body system tends to function improperly when you are not getting adequate rest and therefore, your body finds it difficult to adjust to the changed pattern of eating and therefore, you are at a greater risk of becoming obese.

3. Lowers Metabolism Rate

The rate at which you burn calories depends upon how much active you are in your life. Most people lead a sedentary lifestyle and therefore they need to be physically active to keep their metabolism rate high. When you work in night shifts, you are forcing your body to work during your biological sleep time and then you carry on the tiredness the whole day due to distorted sleep pattern. This leads in lowering the levels of leptin, a hormone that helps in regulating weight and even checks the level of blood sugar and insulin levels in the body. All this is a signal that the metabolism rate is getting lower due to working at odd hours.

4. You Tend To Become Less Alert

When you work in night shift, inconsistent sleep patterns can deprive your body of the time required to repair itself during the sleep. Your body accumulates all the strain and gradually you tend to feel lethargic and your level of mental alertness goes down. Your efficiency at workplace declines and you find it difficult to maintain concentration. Owing to this, you are at a higher risk of causing accidents while driving and you may even be susceptible to workplace injuries due to decreased attentiveness.

5. Risky During Pregnancy

During pregnancy, it is very important that you have a set pattern for spending time in a day. You must have a fix time table for waking up, eating, performing pregnancy exercises and taking adequate rest. You need to maintain activeness and ensure that you get rest when you need the most.

If you are pregnant and working in a night shift, then you need to take utmost care of yourself. There are many hormonal changes in a pregnant woman and these hormonal changes can be dealt well when you sleep right. You need to sleep around 7 to 8 hours to keep your mood swings and hormonal changes in right balance. You are actually required to listen to your body when you are pregnant or else working in night shift will increase many risks such as stress accumulation, tiredness, body pain due to sitting constantly, etc.

6. You Are At A Higher Risk Of Suffering From Heart Attack

Until now, you must have known that working in night shift is actually inviting a lot of lifestyle diseases and now one of them is heart attack. When you have insufficient sleep, you feel fatigue most of the time due to which your physical activity further reduces. Your distorted eating pattern and unhealthy diet along with stress accumulation can increase the risk of suffering from high blood pressure. This is in long term can affect the flow of blood from the arteries creating blockage and you may eventually face a heart attack too.

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7. You May Suffer From Diabetes

Many scientific researchers have found the link between diabetes and night shift employees. As per the research held among 226,652 participants, people working in night shift were found to be at 1.09 times higher risk of suffering from diabetes and men in particular, are more prone to have diabetes in comparison of women due to irregular working hours. One more study has proved that night shift workers are more likely to suffer from Type 2 diabetes because their shift timing results in distorted food consumption patterns along with improper bowel movements causing an adverse impact on the insulin activity.

8. You May Be Gripped By Depression

Various studies have suggested that working in night shifts can not only decline your mental alertness but the inadequate rest can affect your mental health too. One such study has proved that depression occurs at a higher rate among night or evening shift workers in comparison to people working in day shifts. Working in night shift enhances mood swings and can make you feel stressed always. Moreover, when your performance also gets affected and you are at the same time feeling socially isolated, then chances are high that you may be gripped by depression.

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