For anyone clocking in and out of work at crazy o’clock, it appears all those late hours aren’t just wreaking havoc on your sleep patterns.
Working anti-social shift hours can actually damage your brain, according to new research from the University of Toulouse.
The study shows that working for a decade or longer in a shift pattern can lead to memory loss, lessen your ability to think as well as aging your brain at a faster rate.
Over 3,000 workers were analysed over a 10 year span, with roughly 20% of participants working shifts across mornings, afternoon and evenings.
The results showed that shift workers produced lower average scores for processing speed, memory and overall brain function compared to participants who worked the standard nine-to-five pattern.
The researchers behind the research believes it’s all down to disrupting the body clock, which causes stress and decreases the functionality of the brain, as well as a lack of vitamin D for those working on a night shift. The subjects who worked on the night shigt for longer periods of time were also found to have weaker mental proficiency.
It’s not all bad news though – the damage is reversible.
Although the recovery is slow, it will take five years before your brain starts improving from the shift back to more ‘normal’ working hours.
