The Ill Effects of Shift Work

By:
iVillage Health & Well-Being Staff Writer

For those who work the night shift, the morning hours present the greatest problem It's harder to remain alert, but if you fall asleep during this time, your sleep periods will be shorter than they will be at night.

Shift workers aren't alone in feeling sleepy during the day. Moderate to severe daytime sleepiness is experienced by 63 million Americans, according to a 1997 National Sleep Foundation (NSF) Gallup Poll: Sleepiness in America. Untreated sleep disorder symptoms, such as the sleep-disordered breathing of sleep apnea or the sudden sleep attacks of narcolepsy, may account for some of this. However, difficulty falling asleep (insomnia) and sleep deprivation are far more common. Insomnia is experienced by about half of Americans (1995 NSF Gallup Poll: Sleep in America). And with the number of people working nontraditional shifts increasing about three percent every year, the problem of sleep deprivation is growing with it.

Studies demonstrate that shift workers tend to sleep less than nonshift workers every day...one and a half to four hours less! If you're like many shift workers, you try to find time for family and friends, responsibilities and hobbies. Sleep is often last on a shift worker's "to do" list. Always desired, too little achieved, sleep becomes a seemingly impossible dream. Sleep-deprivation becomes a way of life. And the problem is worse for older shift workers.

Accident Risk Rising

When you don't get the sleep you need (for most of us, about eight hours per night), you build up a sleep debt. Just like any other kind of debt, a sleep debt needs to be paid. Those around you may pay too from your difficulties concentrating. Your risk for accidents increases. And you'll need recovery sleep to catch up.

What's most important to keep in mind, however, is that it's better to prevent sleep deprivation than count on making up for it afterwards. This is because while you are sleep-deprived, you are a danger to yourself and others. The shift worker's drive home from work can be especially dangerous; some research suggests that for rotating shift workers, the risk for falling asleep at the wheel doubles. And drowsy driving crashes are far more likely to end in death than crashes that don't involve sleepiness.

A large body of research shows that rotating shifts and sleep loss lead to mistakes, dips in attention, delayed reactions, accidents in the workplace, crashes on our roadways, reduced productivity, and difficulties in communication. The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl and the disastrous chemical explosion in Bhopal both took place after midnight.