Night shifts might make you a zombie

Lata Jain

Several years ago Dhruv, took a job with one of the most heinous schedules that could be imposed on a human being, week of work deep into the night, when everyone else was sleeping. The cycle went on and on, very quickly turning my friend into a zombie. It didn't take long for the brutal schedule to start affecting his health. Of course, it sure seemed to put a damper in his social life as well. Today, we know a lot more about the detrimental effects of working through the night. And with continued research, the case against working instead of sleeping only gets stronger.

Nidhi Sethi got married in 2010.They planned their child a few months after marriage. But Nidhi who was working for a BPO could not conceive. She put on 11kgs while working in the night shift. Her husband Suman was a Marketing head for a FMCG company. Day shift and night shift her relations went sour.

Associate Professor Shantha Rajaratnam says it is only in the past five years that scientists have really begun to understand how tampering with the body's natural sleeping patterns can affect us physiologically. ''We didn't realise before that disrupted circadian rhythms have an impact on the cardiovascular system, the reproductive cycle and on the digestive system,'' Rajaratnam says.

In humans, this is an average 24-hour and 22-minute cycle. The problems with shift work are caused by a mismatch between the body’s clock and the sleep wake cycle. Weight gain can be another side effect of working nights. Disruption to the body's master clock affects the secretion of digestive hormones. The body's ability to process sugar is also impaired by circadian misalignment.

Dr Narhari of the Public Health Sciences Division found that woman working in the night shifts were associated with a 24 percent increased risk of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer and a 48 percent increased risk of borderline disease compared with those who only worked daytime hours. They also found that women ages 50 and above were significantly more likely to develop ovarian cancer if they had worked at night.

There have been numerous studies linking shift work with an increased risk in diabetes, cancer, obesity, heart disease, gastrointestinal issues, weight gain, and abnormal sleep periods. Oncologists speculate the increased risk could be linked to melatonin, a powerful hormone that is normally produced at night. Melatonin regulates reproductive hormones, including estrogen, and it scavenges harmful free radicals and boosts production of other antioxidants in the body. However, melatonin production is suppressed by ambient light.

Organisational changes, such as better rosters, provision of healthy food and educating night workers about how to ensure they sleep longer in the day are some ways the lives of our night force could be improved says Radha Ramani a hospital scientist.

Social and family factors can have a big impact on a shift worker’s mental and physical health. Workers who don’t have sufficient time to interact with their families and friends because of the shift, may feel deprived and isolated, leading to moodiness and negativity. This can affect their relationships both at home and at work.

“Maximise the sleep time you have and do your best to keep overall stress as low as possible. Eat a solid paleo diet, don’t rely on caffeine to keep you awake and give yourself a break. Right now you may not be able to achieve the degree of leanness that you’d like or be a fire-breather in the gym – but you can do everything possible to maximise your health regardless of your less than optimal situation,” says Vikrant a health trainer.