How Your Inconsistent Work Schedule Is Affecting Your Health

Shift work was once the sole domain of the emergency services, but today we expect to be able to have 24 hour access to many retail, convenience and entertainment services as well.

This means that a continuously large percentage of the population must work later or rotating shifts in order to keep up with need.

In the case of factory workers, they’re often required to work overnight shifts so their company can make as much money as possible off the (continued) use of the machinery and equipment they invested in.

However, there is a very real human toll that we all pay when these shifts are called for.

For instance, occupational burnout is becoming increasingly common among all types of workers.

As a naturopathic doctor, this is a trend I am also seeing in my clients.

Read on to find more about the health effects of an inconsistent work schedule as well as some naturopathic solutions for stress and burnout.

What Is Your Circadian Rhythm?

Let’s start with a quick lesson about the circadian rhythm, as it’s instrumental in understanding the issues of shiftwork.

Think of your circadian rhythm like your internal wake sleep cycle.

It’s controlled by your hypothalamus, which releases melatonin to make your body tired.

It’s constantly noticing daylight and darkness, length of time awake, and stress.

It’s kind of like the sandman that comes to make you sleepy when you need to rest.

When we track human sleep cycles, we clearly see that the deepest dip in energy occurs between roughly 2am until 4am, and from 1pm until about 3pm.

These are almost directly across from each other in a 24 hour cycle, and that should be no surprise.

After a consistent amount of time, humans need rest, and our bodies automatically slow us down and make us fatigued in order to facilitate that.

RELATED: 7 Nutrient Deficiencies That Can Cause Chronic Fatigue

Now, some people tend more naturally toward morning or evening, so those times may vary slightly, but being sleep deprived can make them more pronounced.

However, the more regular your sleep habits, the more efficiently it works.

Your circadian rhythm also changes as you age.

For example, many elderly folks sleep either significantly more than before or require significantly less sleep than they did when younger.

What Happens When Your Circadian Rhythm Is Disrupted?

It happens to everyone.

We stay up late to binge watch the latest season of Ascension, perhaps, or maybe it’s an overseas soccer – pardon me, football game.

Jet lag, or studying for days on end, can also contribute to this.

No matter the cause, you end up with a disrupted circadian rhythm and a bad case of sleep deprivation.

There are some very obvious symptoms of a disrupted circadian system:

• You feel more lethargic and tired
• You need caffeine to get moving in the morning
• Your mood swings increase in frequency
• Your reaction time is decreased
• Your memory and information processing skills are decreased
• Your decision making skills are impaired
• Your psychomotor coordination is lessened
• You experience a decrease in job satisfaction
• Your mental health degrades
• Your socializing and family time is reduced, which can be both a symptom and influence

Effectively, it’s like being intoxicated, and can affect you similarly.

To put this in perspective, medical residents who are on call have almost seven times the risk of a motor vehicle accident compared to people with a more regular schedule.

In a 2019 study by Mak Et Al., medical residents were found to be at a higher risk for motor vehicle accidents after working long shifts.

In another example, a parent moving to a night shift can affect school performance in grade school children.

Finally, there is a 57% higher divorce rate in the marriages of those working inconsistent shifts as well.

Clearly, the health of your circadian rhythm is pretty important.

Health Risks Of Disrupted Circadian Rhythm

As well as feeling out of sorts, there are actual and serious health consequences to having your circadian rhythm disrupted for a significant period of time.

Below are five of the most commonly diagnosed complications.

1. Heart Disease

The chance of developing heart disease is directly proportional to how long people work night shifts or rotating shifts.

There are several studies that underscore the severity of this.

One study showed that “increasing years of rotating night shift work was associated with significantly higher cardiovascular heart disease risk.”

The good news, however, is that after leaving that lifestyle, the increasing amount of distance from it will also reduce your chance of heart disease proportionally.

2. Certain Types Of Cancer

Melatonin is what the body produces when you’re falling asleep, and it is easily dysregulated by inconsistent shiftwork.

It turns out that melatonin not just aids sleep, but it also has anticancer and antioxidant properties.

Deficiency in melatonin in your system can make you more prone to breast, endometrial, prostate or colorectal cancers.

RELATED: Health Benefits Of Melatonin: Beyond Sleep

A 2011 study investigates this, and demonstrates that “in six out of ten studies, a statistically significant association between night shift work and risk of breast cancer has been shown.”

3. Diabetes

It’s not just your melatonin and your cortisol that gets thrown off by irregular hours.

A disrupted circadian rhythm also affects the hormones that regulate appetite, diabetes, and obesity.

RELATED: How Does Stress Affect Your Eating?

The conclusions of a 2015 study are as follows: “All shift work schedules with the exception of mixed shifts and evening shifts were associated with a statistically higher risk of DM [diabetes] than normal daytime schedules, and the difference among those shift work schedules was significant.”

Metabolic syndrome, the precursor to diabetes, also goes up in shift workers, and there are early reports that long work hours have also been linked to obesity.

RELATED: Why Shift Workers Should Not Eat At Night

4. Digestive Disorders

Our gastrointestinal systems are surprisingly sensitive, and react to stress levels of both emotional and physical origin.

Those with inconsistent work shifts have been shown to have more frequent bouts of constipation, diarrhea and abdominal pain.

There is also an increased chance of irritable bowel syndrome for night workers versus day workers.

Shift workers are also recommended to monitor their small intestine for ulcers.

5. Adrenal Stress

When your stress levels require a lot of cortisol for an extended period of time, this can put additional stress on your adrenal glands.

RELATED: How Your Body Works: Your Adrenal Glands

The constant, high level stress that we all seem to live with nowadays is a huge factor in our sleeping issues and the resulting disabilities in mind and body.

The best thing to do for this is to get tested by a naturopathic doctor to determine the fluctuation in your levels.

A simple 24 hour salivary panel can help me determine if adrenal fatigue may be a side effect of your sleep wake cycle disruptions.

Book Your Appointment With Dr. Sheila Dyer, ND, Today

Call now to book your appointment with me, Dr. Sheila Dyer, ND.

If you find that your work schedule means that you may have circadian system irregularities, I can help.

Together, we can work to reduce your risk of illness from shift work using natural methods.

I’ve got experience helping patients with their sleep issues, and have managed to leverage natural remedies to help them.

In addition to helping you sleep, I can also work on reducing your risk of developing the above mentioned conditions.

Take action now to address your sleep cycle irregularities, and enjoy life at a whole new level.

Book your appointment with Dr. Sheila Dyer, ND, today and find out how naturopathy can transform your sleep.