Late night shifts and variable schedules when you were younger are associated with poorer health and depression at age 50, a new study has found.
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Late night shifts and variable schedules when you were younger are associated with poorer health and depression at age 50, a new study has found.
Simon Kul/Getty Images
Feeling burnt out and looking for a reason to cut back on work? Night shifts and unstable schedules in early life may make you more susceptible to depression and poor health in midlife, according to new research. there is.
The study looked at the work schedules and sleep patterns of more than 7,000 Americans, ages 22 to 50, interviewed over a 30-year period. Study author Wen-Jui Han, a professor at New York University's Silver School of Social Work, was surprised to find that a quarter of his participants worked only traditional daytime hours. Ta.
The remainder (three-quarters of the sample of American workers born in the 1960s) worked variable hours. People with more unstable work schedules, such as night shifts or shift work, sleep less and are more likely to have poor health and depression at age 50 than those with more stable schedules or daytime hours. It was reported that there is a high possibility that
“Our current jobs are making us sick and making us poor,” Han said in a Zoom interview. “Work is supposed to enable us to accumulate resources. But for many people, work prevents them from doing so. In fact, they become increasingly miserable over time.”
Han hopes to study her — published last week pro swan — to encourage conversations about how to “provide resources to help people who are physically exhausted and emotionally drained by work to help them live happy, healthy lives.”
She was one of those employees. When Han was in her 40s, when she was getting tenure, she worked 16-hour days, taking time off just to eat and sleep, even though she hardly had enough time to sleep. Was. Her doctor warned that her condition resembled that of a woman in her 60s.
Like many young professionals who embraced the hustle culture and worked around the clock, she was overworked.
“You can say they want to work long hours voluntarily, but they're not actually working long hours voluntarily,” Han said. “They feel that their work culture requires them to work long hours and that they may be penalized if they don't.”
She said study participants who sacrificed sleep to earn a living suffered from depression and poor health. “If our work becomes a daily stressor, we can expect to see health effects like this in 30 years.”
Studies show that Black men and women and workers with limited education disproportionately bear the burden of night shifts, unstable work schedules, and sleep deprivation.
According to Professor Han's research, white women with a college education and a steady day job work an average of 60% less per week than black men who did not graduate from high school and worked variable hours most of their lives. It has been reported that they sleep for a long time.
Additionally, black women who did not graduate from high school and who transitioned from regular daytime work to precarious employment in their 30s were more likely than white college-educated men who had stable, standard daytime jobs. were four times more likely to report poor health.
The study shows a link between night and shift work and poor sleep and poor health, but it cannot prove that one causes the other. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked sleep deprivation to chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, and African Americans are more likely than whites to suffer from these diseases.
The amount of sleep you need to stay healthy varies by age, but the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Society for Sleep Research recommend that adults between the ages of 18 and 60 get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. I am.
Dr. Alison Myers praised new research highlighting the link between work schedules, sleep, and poor health.
The findings confirmed what she sees in many diabetic patients, who often get only five hours of sleep after a night shift. The endocrinologist and professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine says she advises her patients to alternate days and their health improves.
Previous research has shown that the sleep, eating and social habits required by night and shift work may increase the risk of developing diabetes. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in 2019, Black people were twice as likely to die from diabetes as white people.
“Sleep deprivation is a risk factor for diabetes, but it's not often talked about,” said Myers, who was not involved in the study. “One of the things I have to preach to my patients is that if you work night shifts and get four or five hours of sleep, or even less, you're at increased risk for diabetes and poor blood sugar control.”
One patient became angry with her when he followed her advice and switched from night to day shifts, leaving him to contend with traffic. “But,” she said in a Zoom interview, “when he switched to day shift, we actually got better control of his blood sugar levels.”
In 2019, about 16% of U.S. workers were employed outside of daytime hours, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Many of the participants in Hans's study with unstable work schedules tended to work part-time jobs, and in some cases held multiple part-time jobs. “Unfortunately, many of these people tend to have to work multiple jobs to survive,” Myers said.
Ronnie Cohen is a San Francisco Bay Area journalist specializing in health and social justice issues.
