Night Shift Health Effects

If you work during the night, or in the graveyard shift, as it is commonly known, there are certain health effects that you might have to deal with. Working in shifts can jeopardize your body and brain, both. Read on to find out the night shift health effects.

Night Shift Health Effects

It becomes quite impossible to have a sound sleep during the daytime. Not only because a human brain is programmed to rest and sleep during the night, but also because of the noise, which is perhaps the biggest disturbing factor. People who sleep during the day have to deal with noisy neighbors, children, traffic, etc.

The brain generally requires atleast 8 hours of sleep to feel nourished and rested. But because of the busy environment during the daytime, it is not always possible to sleep 8 hours everyday. As a result, your body will be tired and you will feel fatigued the whole time.

The sleep/wake cycle of the body is disturbed because of working in shifts. When you are awake during the night and asleep during the day, your body does not receive the proper, positive biological cues because of the amount of light that is present in the environment during the daytime. These signs are very important to regulate the circadian rhythms that control the sleep/wake cycle of the body and brain. Inturn, this will pose difficulty in sleeping.

Working in shifts can have an effect similar to jet lag. The body, on an average, needs one hour per day to adjust to the changes in the sleeping habit but working in shifts disrupts this. Hence the person who works in night shifts finds it quite impossible to sleep properly.

Working the whole night can also cause heart attacks. People who work during the night and sleep during the day are more susceptible to heart diseases and even heart attacks, mainly, because of their work pattern. This is because of lack of proper sleep, stressing your body during the night, chronic stress, etc.

Not only heart attack, an irregular heart beat is a good indicator of the condition of your heart and your body as well. Irregular heart beat can occur when you work during the night and try and sleep during the day. It is also a good indicator of how your body is taking this whole change in the sleep cycle. An irregular heart beat can cause several other diseases in the body as well.

Another very important problem that night shift workers face is they are not able to relax from the work environment, after their shift is over. This might not seem to be an important thing, but it sure is. People who work during the day time mostly have 3-4 hours before they go to bed. But night shift workers generally come home and get right into the bed with all the stress and tension of work with them. It is very important to relax and distance yourself from the stress of the work before you go to bed. One can listen to music, eat something healthy or watch some kind of TV show to relax.

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I am personally working two weeks routine night shift work since September 2007, it's one year and 3 months until to date. I feel the health effect of working night shift and rotating shift patterns, I started to have food supplements to "maintain" my health.

The main supplement is Milk Thistle which help detoxified my body and improves my liver functions.

I hope I could one day start not working night shift, and see the day lights, everyday, always...

Cheers.

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平时可以吃奶蓟胶囊作为日常保健,保肝护肝.

保肝极品—奶蓟(Milk Thistle)，本品含奶蓟草提炼浓缩剂，可清肝解毒，保护肝脏不受肝炎病毒的侵犯，减少肝硬化，脂肪肝，黄胆，湿疹，以至心血管疾病等等。

奶蓟浓缩胶囊的功能特点:

1. 对肝细胞形成一层保护膜，阻当毒性物质，特别是酒精及环境污染物(农药、重金属等)入侵损害肝脏。对於一些急性肝中毒的病症， 保肝素能有一定的解毒功效。

2. 具有强力的抗氧化功能，能保护肝细胞免受自由基破坏，效力远胜於维生素E。

3. 奶蓟浓缩促进蛋白质的合成， 加快再生新的肝细胞，或令已受损的肝细胞自行修复。

4. 服用奶蓟浓缩胶囊可预防：肝硬化、脂肪肝、急慢性肝炎、肝中毒、胆囊炎、胆囊周围炎、胆石、 牛皮癣、酒精性脂肪肝等。

所以说,你不应该熬夜.如果是熬夜上班的话,应该和单位商量给予照顾.并且注意休息,保证营养充足.