Chronic fatigue, premature aging, digestive disorders, difficulty concentrating, irritability… the list of physical and psychological problems that affect people with long night work hours is unfortunately very long.
The human being is prepared to perform physical and mental activity during the day, with sunlight, and rest at night. Work obligations, however, force many people to vary this cycle, causing changes in the body.
The biggest problem with working at night is that its negative effects do not manifest themselves until after 5 or 10 years, so the worker is not aware of it.
Effects of night work
One of the main effects of resting during the day and working at night is known as the ‘burnout syndrome ‘, characterized by excessive physical and psychological exhaustion. The worker suffers muscle pain, reduced ability to concentrate, poor quality sleep and general malaise.
Nighttime working hours not only affect the quantity and quality of sleep, but also have repercussions on the eating behavior of the individual, who hardly eats during the day and, when he is hungry -in the middle of his working day- eats badly with sandwiches or unbalanced diets.
Inadequate eating habits like these and prolonged over time can eventually cause serious digestive disorders such as ulcers, gastritis, heartburn, overweight, etc.
On the other hand, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that a worker who spends 15 years working night shifts or rotating shifts will age prematurely by about five years.
Regarding psychological problems, the statistics also confirm that these are more frequent among night shift workers than among the rest. The cause is, apparently, in the difficulty that these people have to develop their social and family life normally.