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Shift workers have poorer memory and slower mental speed because their internal clocks are out of whack, a study suggests.
Switching from night shifts to day shifts has long been linked to a variety of serious health problems such as sleep disorders, heart disease, obesity and mood problems.
It is thought to be caused by a disruption in the body's circadian rhythm, our internal clock that releases hormones that encourage us to sleep when it gets dark.
Now a new analysis by Austrian experts has found that shift work could also affect brain function.
They brought together numerous studies on the topic and found that shift workers performed “significantly worse” than their non-shift worker counterparts in five out of six categories. These included being less attentive and having poorer impulse control, which could increase the risk of workplace accidents and errors.
Experts have suggested that employers encourage workers to take nap breaks to ensure their mental functions are protected.
Shift work, in which people work beyond the traditional 9 to 5 working hours, typically late into the night and early morning, is an essential part of modern society. They include shift workers who provide 24-hour support to the NHS, as well as customer call center staff such as: B. from banks and / or IT companies.
It is estimated that around one in eight Brits work night shifts and fatigue is estimated to cause up to £240 million worth of workplace accidents each year.
Austrian experts analyzed mental performance results from 18 studies that examined almost 19,000 people who compared shift workers with their colleagues during normal office hours
Experts from Sigmund Freud Private University analyzed the results of 18 different studies on shift work and brain function published between 2005 and 2020 and involving a total of almost 19,000 people.
They compared results based on participants' processing speed, working memory, attention, impulse control and situational response, as well as the ability to filter out unimportant visual cues and switch between tasks unconsciously.
Five of the studies compared workers on fixed shifts with people who worked standard nine-to-five hours.
Eleven studies compared workers on rotating shifts with regular workers. The remaining two studies did not report the shift type they compared.
Half of the studies looked at medical workers, while the rest covered a range of different professions, the authors noted.
The results of the studies were then summarized and showed that shift workers performed worse in five of the six categories assessed.
They found a significantly large impact on shift workers' impulse control and situational response, which is the mind's ability to process information to plan behavior.
A smaller but still significant impact was observed for shift workers' mental processing speed, memory, attention and ability to filter out unimportant information.
However, shift workers have been found to have the same ability to switch between different work tasks as their 9 to 5 colleagues.
Professor Alfred Barth, an expert in psychology and lead author of the study, said: “Decreased neurobehavioral performance in shift workers could play an important role in work-related injuries and errors.”
He added that there are protective measures workplaces can take, such as: Such as nap rooms, worker recovery plans, and regular monitoring of staff to reduce the potential impact of poorer mental performance.
Professor Barth acknowledged that their analysis had some limitations due to the variety of tests that each study they examined used to measure cognitive performance.
He added that the studies also cover different occupations with different demands and workloads, meaning the results may overestimate or underestimate the impact of shift work on employees.
Because the study participants only looked at the participants at one point in time and not over a long period of time, shift work cannot be clearly concluded as the cause of the lower mental performance, Professor Barth continued.
He said more research should be carried out in this area to improve the quality of knowledge.
Shift work has long been associated with an increased risk of long-term illnesses compared to those who work regular hours.
Previous research has shown that 45 percent of women and 40 percent of men who do shift work in the NHS have a long-term condition, compared to 39 percent and 36 percent of those who work off-shift respectively.