The phenomenon of jet lag does not only occur after a long journey and crossing several time zones; shift work can also turn the body clock upside down.
In this article, you'll learn about the health consequences of an irregular lifestyle and why your productivity and mental performance suffer as a result.
Table of contents
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1. How shift work messes up body and mind
Anyone who has ever traveled by plane to a different time zone has most likely experienced the feeling of jet lag .
This refers to your body's adjustment to the new time zone , which usually doesn't go smoothly . Fatigue , disordered eating , and difficulty concentrating are just three of the symptoms of jet lag.
Your body's biological clock, the circadian rhythm, determines many different functions that your body performs within 24 hours.
This includes, for example, the fact that you become tired at a certain time due to the release of the hormone melatonin . The time change disrupts your circadian rhythm.
Are you interested in what exactly happens during the circadian rhythm? Then you can read all the important information in this article about the sleep hormone melatonin .
But it's not just long-distance travelers who suffer from this phenomenon. Anyone who has regularly changing working hours , i.e., works shifts , has to contend with the consequences of this irregular rhythm of life .
Such a work rhythm is not only a strain on social life, it can also have negative effects on the body , mind and psychological state .
Anyone who has to work a night shift, for example from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., has to get used to sleeping during the day and being awake during the night.
The problems lie primarily in the environmental signals that make it difficult to live against your usual rhythm. During the day, sleep isn't nearly as deep, because other hormones, such as cortisol, are at work during the day, making you awake and alert.
The darkness of the night causes the sleep hormone melatonin to be released. This significantly reduces your alertness and ability to concentrate at night.
Difficult for anyone who has to work night shifts. It's especially difficult when night shifts and day shifts alternate regularly, or when you want to stay awake during the day on weekends to meet friends or be involved in family life.
During this "weekend," the body attempts to return to a typical day-night rhythm, which means another adjustment of the circadian rhythm. This constant back and forth cannot be without consequences .
Take-Home Message #1: Shift workers regularly experience a reversal of their natural day-night rhythm, comparable to jet lag. This throws the body off its circadian rhythm, which has consequences for physical and mental fitness.
BRAINEFFECT HACK : If your sleep rhythm has been disrupted by shift work, our SLEEP capsules and our SLEEP SPRAY with the natural sleep hormone melatonin will help you shorten the time it takes to fall asleep.
2. The dangerous consequences and risks of permanent jet lag due to shift work
Shift work not only imbalances the body, but also affects the brain. Irregular and less deep sleep weakens memory, causing difficulty concentrating and diminished mental performance .
People who suffer from sleep deprivation do not fundamentally lose the ability to concentrate, but rather struggle with short lapses in concentration.
Like a brief power outage. Shift workers often don't even notice their own loss of concentration. Especially in professions like nursing, it's extremely important to be consistently alert and mentally resilient.
A recent study examined the extreme stress of demanding night shift jobs. The study, conducted at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, has long examined the risks of night shift work. [1]
Over 22 years, this study documented the physical and mental fitness of nearly 75,000 female nurses who regularly had to work night shifts.
The results are alarming. After just five years in the profession , nurses who work irregular or night shifts are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease .
The study further revealed that the greatest risks lie in the transition between regular daytime working hours and night shifts . This constant back and forth is tantamount to permanent jet lag.
Due to the disturbed sleep rhythm, the body's hormone secretion is particularly unbalanced , such as a disturbed production of the satiety hormone leptin.
A study by the University of Chicago found that shift workers often suffer from obesity because their normal feeling of satiety is disrupted. [2] One consequence of obesity is often cardiovascular disease.
In addition to the often poor diet, shift work eliminates another factor for optimal performance: regular physical activity. Night shifts are often extremely demanding jobs for the body and mind, so exercise in leisure time is often neglected.
All of these factors combined cause the immune system to become weak . If this continues for many years , chronic diseases often develop. A study from the Women's Hospital in Boston confirms this.
All nurses who worked night shifts had an increased risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease. The risk of lung cancer was also increased by 25% among these women.
Take-home message #2: Shift work reduces mental and physical performance. Irregular sleep often leads to unhealthy eating habits and a lack of physical activity. This negatively impacts the immune and cardiovascular systems.
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3. What helps against constant jet lag?
The negative consequences of constant jet lag caused by shift work cannot be completely avoided , but they can at least be reduced . Of course, everyone should generally try to work a job with regular working hours.
Of course, this cannot be guaranteed in every case. Those who work shifts should try to schedule their shifts so that the shifts rotate in a forward-looking manner , i.e., early shift, late shift, and then night shift.
Because, in general, it 's easier for your body to stay awake longer than usual . The best way to combat constant jet lag is with your body's own weapons: the body's own sleep hormone, melatonin .
As already mentioned, the sleep hormone melatonin is partly responsible for regulating the sleep-wake cycle. It is normally produced by the body itself.
Shift workers , however, suffer from chronically low melatonin levels caused by their disrupted circadian rhythm. This can be remedied with BRAINEFFECT SLEEP with Melatonin, a product containing 0.5 mg of melatonin per capsule, thus reducing jet lag.
SLEEP with Melatonin helps the body return to its natural day-night rhythm more quickly with 0.5 mg of melatonin and also contains calming ingredients like magnesium, which have a calming and muscle-relaxing effect, so you can fall asleep better and faster.
4. Conclusion
Shift work puts your body in a constant state of jet lag, so to speak. The changing waking and sleeping times disrupt your biorhythm, the so-called circadian rhythm.
This disrupts the body's production of the sleep hormone melatonin, which in turn leads to poorer sleep quality. The consequences of persistent jet lag for your health can be serious.
BRAINEFFECT HACK : Give your body extra melatonin when it needs it. Just before bedtime. Our SLEEP Capsules and SLEEP SPRAY will help you do this.
5. Sources
[1] http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(14)00623-0/abstract
[2] http://www.journalsleep.org/ViewAbstract.aspx?pid=30492
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