Life-coach and psychotherapist Natalia Stylson told us about why night work is not salvation and a paradise vacancy for a person from the Council of Soviet, but a powerful blow to the body.
What is the night shift for us? One night shift can be compared with 8 hour jet-lag. That is, to work one night - it's like flying by plane through 8 time zones.Imagine how heavy conditions are such conditions. A number of our genes (and considerable) is responsible for various rhythmic processes. For example, cell dividing processes, sleep-wake, digestion, synthesis, hormone selection, and so on. After we go to the night mode (or arrive in place), the work of 97% of these genes is significantly worse. This failure of all processes is needed by the body in order to rebuild on a new way, but such a reboot is extremely heavy. All physiological processes slow down sharply. That's just after the flight, a person usually returns to the usual regime, and everything continues on the night shift and continues. Naturally, it affects health.
Working in the night shift increases the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and even breast cancer.
Causes of breast cancer
During sleep disorders, the level of melatonin - hormone responsible for sleeping is reduced at regular night shifts. This substance also has an antitumor effect (protects against cancer). There are 3 hypotheses explaining the action of melatonin:
- Reducing melatonin increases the concentration of female sex hormones in the blood. There is a constant stimulation of breast cells to the division, which can cause malignant rebirth.
- Melatonin itself has a property that prevents the development of cancer. It blocks biochemical pathways in the body, which are used for constant uncontrolled cell division.
- The release of melatonin is closely related to the release of the P53 protein, the main defender of our organism from tumors. Less melatonin is less than P53, more chances of cancer cell survive and multiply.
Causes of type 2 diabetes
Women who work in the night shift 10-19 years in a row increase the risk of diabetes by 40%. And those who are busy at such a work for more than 20 years - by 60%. The likely cause is a violation of insulin allocation and deterioration of its influence on body tissue. Cells that starve from the lack of energy cease adequately to respond to it and take glucose from the blood. This is due to the violation of the highlight of hormones responsible for appetite. Hormone Grethin, which appetite enhances, appears in the blood in large quantities than leptin - hormone saturation. As a result, I want to eat at night, and this is not physiological time for eating. Another hypothesis suggests that the decrease in glucose tolerance (cell immunity to insulin) is associated with a violation of the microbial composition of the intestinal content (dysbiosis) during the jet lag. After Jet lag, the intestine flora is restored after a couple of weeks, but for people with night shifts it is not available.Of course, work at night also leads to the deficiency of vitamin D, because the late birds spend little time in the sun. And this is another factor in the development of obesity, as well as impairment of immunity, depression and dementia.
Impeach at night
Perhaps the most unpleasant that night shifts enhance the phenomena of cognitive decline. That is, lead to a deterioration of memory and intelligence. The more the person works in this mode, the more changes are pronounced. Night workers are ahead of the day-to-peer workers to reduce memory and intelligence for 6.5 years. After leaving work in 10 years, you can still restore lost abilities, so for 5. And then, this is if the employee does not affect other factors worsening mental health.
In several articles mentioned the study, according to which the aircraft serving personnel, which experience chronic jet-lag, detects a decrease in the frontal share. It is not surprising, for a chronically lit man begins to lose their neurons. After several sleepless nights in the brain, the level of the protein increases, which protects the nervous cells from destruction and helps them will be restored. But if the insomnia becomes chronic, then restoration possibilities are reduced. It is not known how this process is expressed, but the mice in the experiment lost to 25% of neurons in Locus Coeruleus (responsible for the physiological response to stress).
Conclusion - night work is definitely harmful to health. If it is not possible to refuse it, it is better to even throw it before your experience will be 10 years old.
Protective measures
What if you still have to work at night? The main idea of protective measures is to maintain, if possible, alternate sleep and wakefulness, so as not to expose the body with excess stress. After a sleepless night should follow the duration last 6-8 hours.
In addition, it is useful:
- Do not run after a night shift. Thought hours - home.
- If possible, take up during the shift. This reduces the general stress against forced wakefulness.
- If you fail, it is necessary to take breaks, during which began to move more.
- Avoid constant chewing of any nuts, chips, candy and the like. The snacks will even more disagree the system associated with saturation and hunger.
- Do not drink alcohol.
- As for coffee-containing drinks, the opinions of specialists are divergent. Some believe that they need to drink them to maintain the level of wakefulness, others argue that after them only wants to sleep. But it is all people in different ways. There are those for which coffee is not worse than sleeping pills.
- After you left the workplace after changing, it is advisable to wear dark glasses in order not to wake yourself with sunlight. Under its influence, the amount of melatonin decreases and drowsiness decreases. Houses go to bed with curtained windows. Do not drink caffener-containing drinks before bedtime. Avoid alcohol, even if it leads asleep.
You can read other articles by Natalia on its personal site: gutta-honey.com.