Work drives the economy. Every hour of work that you put in fattens your wallet and allows you to splurge on the things you love. And yet, work can be bad for your health if your job demands that you burn the midnight oil too often. Jobs that keep you awake throughout the night and till the wee hours of the morning put you at risk of contracting several grave and life-threatening diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and cardiac ailments. And here's how missing your nighttime quota of forty winks can wreak havoc with your health.
Health Implications
According to a study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, working through the night throws your biological clock out of sync and hampers with the normal metabolic functions of your body. This in turn, increases your blood sugar levels thereby raising the risk of you contacting type 2 diabetes. In fact, according to this study, people who work night shifts often are twice more likely to suffer from diabetes than those who do not.
Make sure You Receive Higher Pay
Research has also shown that working through the night raises your risks of contracting cardiac diseases. An experiment carried out as part of this study revealed that participants who missed sleep at night showed irregular breathing rhythms and stiffer blood vessels the next morning. In this context, it is worth clarifying that persistently stiffened and thickened blood vessels impair with the normal flow of blood throughout the body and especially increase the risk of a person developing cardiac complications and suffering a stroke.
Late nights have also been shown to reduce the immunity of the body making you vulnerable to a host of diseases and inflammatory attacks, impair your body's natural ability to heal itself, and also lessen your ability to cope with stress.
So, now that you know about the worst working hours for your health, it is time you looked for healthier jobs, ask your boss to reconsider your shift, or make sure the nightly pay is enough to make up for these risks.
Reference:
Circadian Disruption, Shift Work and the Risk of Cancer: A Summary of the Evidence and Studies in Seattle.Cancer Causes & Control. May 2006, Volume 17, Issue 4, pp 539-545
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