Posted on 04/14/2012 7:41:00 PM PDT by neverdem
Shift workers getting too little sleep at the wrong time of day may be increasing their risk of diabetes and obesity, according to researchers.
The team is calling for more measures to reduce the impact of shift working following the results of its study.
Researchers controlled the lives of 21 people, including meal and bedtimes.
The results, published in Science Translational Medicine, showed changes to normal sleep meant the body struggled to control sugar levels.
Some participants even developed early symptoms of diabetes within weeks.
Shift work has been associated with a host of health problems.
Doctors at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in the US, were trying to study its effects in a controlled environment.Lower insulin levels
The 21 health-trial participants started with 10 hours' sleep at night. This was followed by three weeks of disruption to their sleep and body clocks.
End Quote Dr Orfeu Buxton Brigham and Women's HospitalThe evidence is clear that getting enough sleep is important for health, and that sleep should be at night for best effect”
The length of the day was extended to 28 hours, creating an effect similar to a full-time flyer constantly getting jet lag.
Participants were allowed only 6.5 hours' sleep in the new 28-hour day, equivalent to 5.6 hours in a normal day. They also lived in dim light to prevent normal light resetting the body clock...
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
I am not a second shift worker but ever since I was a kid I felt much more normal being up while everyone else is asleep. I wish I could find friends that were the same. As an artist (writer/director) it works well, but I am also a singer and musician and it is harder to do both when my husband and world is asleep. haha. Can you imagine having me for a neighbor belting out and playing songs all night long while your trying to sleep. lol.
The key is to sleep at the same time everyday. I sleep 1030 to 1730 every day just like people on day shift sleep at the same time every night.
If you have the attitude that third shift is do what you want during the day and sleep when you can you will fail big time.
You also need to make sure the family knows that noon is the middle of the night for you and they are not to bother you unless they want to enjoy being bugged at 0200.
***Shift work will kill you.****
Durned right! Especially a 12 hour rotating shift.
The doctors tell me I can’t “eat” my way to diabetes. Then why in the hell can’t I eat anything I want. They also tell me not to drink. But know a hell of a lot more old drunks that I do old doctors.
***It is easy to adjust to most shifts than change all the time.***
Not so! I retired from 31 years of constant rotating shifts. 8 hours for several years, then a 12 hour shifts. The last were the worst.
4 nights of 12 hrs. 1 1/2 days off. Three days of 12 hr shift three days off. Then three nights of 12 hour shift, 1 1/2 day off, then 4 nights of 12 hr shifts.
This was a killer! I often woke up after three hrs sleep in the middle of the night (working days) and often only got 4 hr’s sleep while working nights. and I also kept falling asleep at work. My health broke and I almost suffered heart attacks in this time.
When I retired It took me almost 6 months to catch up on sleep, and my sleep patterns are still skewered.
***I’ve been working the 2300-0700 shift for 33 years and I would not work any other, I also work weekends.***
You should try 12 hour rotating shifts. 6 to 6. Or even worse, a 12 to 12 rotating shift.
When I worked in DoD, I was in one position where they had us on rotating shifts. We change every 4 weeks and it wasn’t bad except the overnight shift. When doing the overnight shift, the facility was hardly ever used and I kind of “cheated” and slept during part of the shift. At the time I was a grad student and since it was I and maybe one other person, I would do my school work and then later doze off. The shift ran from 2230 to 0630 and the last two hours of the shift dragged the most !
Second shift which ran from 1430 to 2230 was pretty sweet especially in the Summer since the facility got some use but was mostly pretty slow. I would get up, go out and work out, clean up, eat and then head into work. Plus 2nd and 3rd shit, I didn’t have to wear dressy clothes and it was much more casual dress. Day shift, we had to wear dress slacks and that included Friday’s.
BTW, rotating shifts was hell on the body. Wouldn’t be so bad if 3rd shift was excluded. I never slept that well during the day and by Friday, I was exhausted. The last several months I worked that shift, those who worked 3rd shift can work 4 x 10 hour days but it was then taken off the table. Usually on Friday’s, we can come in early,do our hours and go home earlier but some a-hole managers decided that the facility had to stay open until 8am on Saturday and it was a power trip to insist that it stay occupied until Sat morning.
Those would be killers.
Gotta love some of these comments... and no offense intended but doing shift work in a steel mill is a lot different than jobs where you can do school work and/or sleep.
Not that I’m judging, I’d do it to if I were in those positions. ;-)
BTW, I haven’t worked at a steel mill in years... just thinking back to those dark days.
I have been working shift work for almost 40 years
I have had type 2 diabetes for 3 years and high blood pressure for 10.
Can’t lose any weight either.
My anecdotal experience says this study is correct.
Worked 20 years in the military, 3 on and 2 off, days, mids, swings.
Slept at the drop of a hat but not long or fitful.
Now working 5 on, 2 off swiching between mids and days. A little easier but still have to sleep in the closet in the summer (Alaska, land of the midnight sun). That or put tin foil on the bedroom windows.
Yes, they were the worst. I can only conclude the people that I talked to about the 12 hour shift before we voted on the 12 hour shift were either deliberately misleading me or were in fact extraterrestrial aliens that do not have a human body. There is no way in heck after working them I could ever tell somebody that is the way to go.
I worked twelves for sixteen years, loved them. We worked 3/4 then 4/3 then seven off, great.
Type II diabetes is just the result of consuming margarine, shortening, and polyunsaturated oils. The bad oils make your cell membranes water proof, and glucose proof.
Type II diabetes is just the result of consuming margarine, shortening, and polyunsaturated oils. The bad oils make your cell membranes water proof, and glucose proof.
>> “The doctors tell me I can’t “eat” my way to diabetes.” <<
.
Its not how much you eat, but the lack of correct animal fats that causes the diabetes. If your body has the natural fats from grass or alge fed critters, it uses them and just excretes the junk. You need cream or butter too, in fairly significant amounts because that is your body’s favorite way of getting CLA.
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