Long-Term Shift Work Hurts Your Brain

Previous studies have looked at the dangers of shift work. Furthermore, working for longer periods of time have been linked to chronically reduced cognition. Now, recent findings published in the British Medical Journal show that work like this over a period of 10 years or more can greatly harm cognitive functioning. Fortunately, researchers believe that the effects may be reversible.

For the study, researchers tracked the cognitive abilities of over 3,000 people who were either working in a wide range of sectors or who had retired at one of three points: 1996, 2001 and 2006.

Just under half of the sample, 1,484 people, had worked shifts for at least 50 days of the year.
Around a fifth of the participants worked in a similar proportion of those who had retired had worked a shift pattern that rotated between mornings, afternoons and nights.

Though the researchers initially looked to see whether any amount of shift work was linked to cognitive decline, they found that participants who were currently or who had previously worked in shifts scored lower than those working normal office hours in various memory tests via overall brain power.

"The cognitive impairment observed in the present study may have important safety consequences not only for the individuals concerned, but also for society as a whole, given the increasing number of jobs in high hazard situations that are performed at night," warned the researchers, in a news release.

As this is an observational study, no definitive conclusions can be made, according to researchers. However, disruptions of circadian rhythms can also disrupt brain functioning.