Their study, in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, suggested a decade of shifts aged the brain by more than six years.There was some recovery after people stopped working antisocial shifts, but it took five years to return to normal.
Experts say the findings could be important in dementia, as many patients have disrupted sleep.
The body's internal clock is designed for us to be active in the day and asleep at night.
The damaging effects on the body of working against the body clock, from breast cancer to obesity, are well known.
I'm disappointed to hear this. Now where in the world did I put my keys?
I always did better on the exams where I studied until 3 AM or so, never scheduled a class before 10 A. Felt exhausted when I pulled a 7-3 shift as an aide. Even in grade school, my mom would be after me for not being able to fall asleep in the earlier evening.
I've done nights or evenings since the 1980s, the only day stuff was short term LTC place, and I absolutely do better on the night shift!
I've been on nights for 4 years and these last few months it's really starting to take a toll on me. I'm a morning person at heart, and all of the benadryl and melatonin in the world can't keep me asleep through the day time anymore (even with a dark blue room, blackout curtains, fan on, rain sounds app, and sleep mask). I love my night shift routine, I love my coworkers, I love having time to think at work, but if I don't move to days soon, I might literally go insane from lack of sleep. Hopefully should be switching in January.
I worked a sort of 3-11 swing shift type thing for 5 years. That sucked.
Then I worked straight 3-11 and hated it. All I did was work and sleep and want to be up until the wee hours of the morning.
Then I worked days and I am not a morning person, I actually don't feel well before about 8am if I need to be up before 7. I felt like a zombie working days, I'd be exhausted when I got home and want to be in bed and sleeping by like 7pm.
Now, I work nights and it's like a whole new world. I feel much more rested than I ever have (it feels like) and I know I've always been a night owl. I have zero problems going home and right to sleep (which no matter how hard I tried, I never could on 3-11) and sleeping usually about 8-3 and on that amount of sleep I can run for 36 hours if need be. It's a beautiful thing. Ever since switching to this shift, even an hour nap will have me up and running for a few hours.
Specializes in Medical Oncology, Alzheimer/dementia.
2nd shift is really the ideal shift for me, but it was hard raising a family keeping those hours. I went to 3rd shift because it worked out better for our family. Now that my kids are grown and in college, I could easily work a different shift but I don't want to. I've been a night owl my whole life. I don't feel productive until after 11am, and I can easily stay up until 2 or 3 am on my days off. Like others have posted, on the rare occasion I've done a day shift or had an all day seminar, I've felt off balanced to have to be somewhere from 7am-2pm. I wouldn't necessarily say it decreases brain function, though.
This is totally unexplainable to any normal person but my previous job was two 12 hr 6:00pm to 06:30am shifts on Thursday and Friday and a 12 hr shift 9am to 9:30pm on Tuesdays EVERY WEEK. I loved it !! Napped from noon til 4:00pm on Thursday, crashed all day Friday, napped from 7:30am to 2:00pm on Saturday then converted to a day person until the next Thursday. I guess normal is what works for you. I'm an owl and sometimes stay up late working on my computer until the birdies start tweeting. But getting up before dawn was for the birds!! What I found annoying was vibrations from my dogs playing on the floor, big trucks driving by and the pounding of the bass on some car stereos.
Takes all kinds to make the world go 'round. Night people rock!
I can't say that night shift dulls my brain; it was a struggle to get up in the morning for my day shift job, I do nights a few days a week and enjoyed being a night owl as a child as well.
My ideal shift is 11am-11pm; not sure if there are shifts out there like that anymore, but will beg for that job and hours if it comes along!
I thought I liked night shifts until I stopped doing them. After a couple of weeks off I felt a fog lift. I just got used to feeling crappy. Now that I don't do them anymore I eat better and have the energy for exercise. It's unfortunate because I liked everything else about the night shift other then how it made me feel. I loved my coworkers we were a great team...day shift not so much but life is about trade-offs
I worked nights as a new nurse and did okay with them. Tried them again in my 40s with two decades of experience under my belt. Realized they were killing my brain one day when I couldn't remember how to turn on the computer and it reduced me to tears. BTW, the computer was on sleep mode. All I had to do was wiggle the mouse. Yikes!
I have worked nights shift my entire career as an RN. Even before that I much preferred staying up late and waking later in the day. and most of my prior jobs were evening or night shift. I have struggled with insomnia since I was a teen. I might well have simply been born in the wrong time zone! (if I moved halfway across the globe, my internal clock would be on a "day" schedule)
Oh, and as for "anti-social" shifts, well, hey, some of us are just that (no really, I am very much and introvert and an empath, what goes on around me severely affects me, my mind, feelings, etc. It's better for me to work nights where i can concentrate on what needs my attention, not all the superfluous crap that hits me like a ton of bricks!)
I believe a "normal-for-me" sleep pattern (regular bedtimes even though it's not "normal" per the daytime working people), a good nap, a whole lot of reading books, doing puzzles, playing games, keeping busy outside as much as possible on days off and other "brain-training" can more than make up for any neurodegeneration I have suffered from my shift choices. I am still as mentally sharp as i was 10 years ago, still just as creative and still just as introverted.
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JBudd, MSN
3,836 Posts
I always did better on the exams where I studied until 3 AM or so, never scheduled a class before 10 A. Felt exhausted when I pulled a 7-3 shift as an aide. Even in grade school, my mom would be after me for not being able to fall asleep in the earlier evening.
I've done nights or evenings since the 1980s, the only day stuff was short term LTC place, and I absolutely do better on the night shift!