Hospitals, emergency services, factories and call centers are the ones that provide us with services all the time. We have to thank the night shifts for making our life easy, Our body is meant to be active during the day.
There is a part in our brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. This is like the bodys master clock. It controls when we sleep, when hormones are released how we digest food and how we fight sickness. Normally this clock is set by how daylight we get.
Working at night messes up this order. When we are exposed to light at night it stops the hormone melatonin from working. Melatonin is what helps our body rest and repair itself. When we do not have melatonin we cannot sleep well and other things in our body get out of sync.
Scientists think that when our body is out of sync with its clock it can cause a lot of problems. It can affect how our body uses energy controls blood pressure and fights off diseases. That is why people who work night shifts for a time are more likely to have heart problems, diabetes and get really tired all the time.
There is also proof that when our bodys clock is messed up it can hurt how our cells recover and fix themselves. Some scientists even think that this could increase the risk of cancer. So they are doing research on this.
Even though night shifts are important for our society we need to learn about how they affect our body. This is important if we want to stay healthy for a time. Night shifts are what keep our society running. We have to think about the impact of night shifts, on our health.
If our biological clock is designed for daylight activity, should workplaces rethink how night shifts are structured to protect worker’s health?
MBH/AB