Night Shift or a Nightmare?

Night shifts are tough and challenging to your success at work as well as to your physical health. Not every person enjoys working at night, even those who claims to be ‘Night owl’ hates to work at night. Unfortunately, night shifts are part and parcel of fast paced lives. People working in call centers, BPO’s or even software or IT companies are working day and night either willingly or unwillingly. BPO’s and other companies running 24hours, require manpower both day and night to cater their clients sitting back in abroad or anywhere across the world. No doubt night shifts are merely nightmares but at the same time People working night shifts take home heavy paid packages.

City never sleeps, whether by design or by necessity. Night shifts are proliferated in metropolitan cities. But, working in odd hours has a long lasting negative impact on the person’s mind, body and soul. It affects ones sleeping patterns and eating habits as well as the physiological to psychological disorders like gastric trouble, obesity, backache, diabetes, headache and infertility or depression, fatigue, behavioral changes, mood swings, anxiety, frigidity and impotence.

We often find people rely on tea/ coffee and many of them on alcohol to stay awake throughout the night and work efficiently. But, innumerable cups of tea/ coffee add on to the problem of irregularities in sleep patterns. Night shifts calls for a complete change in the biological clock, at night when your family members and friends are fast asleep you are working and at day time when everyone is awake and actively working, you are sleeping, a complete change in lifestyle.

Unfortunately, shifts working are unavoidable, but according to the recent study; night shifts could be a wreak havoc with hormones that increases women’s risk of cancer. Evidently, late working hours harms the health, increasing the risk of diabetes, obesity as well as cancer. The biological change in the clock due to odd working hours makes you feel tiered and sleep deprived all the time.
In a study published in the journal ‘Occupational and Environmental Medicines’ researchers in Denmark found that women who worked night shifts are four times more likely to develop breast cancer compare to the women who did not work at night.

The researchers asked set of questions to those women who developed cancer as well to those who did not developed cancer and compared the data. The questioner included certain questions related to their family health history and particulars health history. The questioner also had questions related to potential factors that trigger the risk of breast cancer as well as if they used contraceptive, how many children they have, if they had hormone replacement therapy, if they were past menopause and if they sunbathed.

Working at night and sleeping during day time reverses the body’s circadian rhythm, which in turn alerts the level of melatonin. Normally, melatonin rises at night in darkness but the artificial lights suppress melatonin level, which affects the hormones causing breast cancer. Breast cancer patient have low level of melatonin as compare to the women who does not suffer from the disease.
Despite the health factor, it is difficult for both men and women to stay at night and work for long hours. The mere mention of ‘Night Shifts’ conjures up horrific image of nightmare.

About the Author

andy352 This article has been written and posted by a health advisor working at bookmydoctor.com, who also provides free of cost consultancy to patients and advise on various topics like Effects of Night Shifts By visiting the site, you can read articles on Night Shift Health Effects and Effects of Night Shifts on Health and For more information click the Hyperlink.