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A final thought for today.

If you are a shift worker, ie: someone who works more than 3 night shifts per month, stop doing this as soon as possible. It’s not worth it. Full stop.

Shift work is a carcinogen. While the World Health Organization has defined it only as a “likely carcinogen”, the data tells an otherwise very clear story. Working nights shortens your life (by approximately 7 years according to best available estimates) and can literally kill you in a myriad of ways ranging from accidents, domestic violence, suicide, and good old cancer.

There is a hilarious shift that occurred in the published narrative on this topic when the first lawsuit was brought against an employer by a night shift nurse who developed breast cancer. All of a sudden, all the research into the negative health effects of shift work “shifted” (pun intended) to ways in which night shift personnel could make lifestyle modifications to lessen its impacts. Nowhere, for many years, has any published paper substantially addressed ways in which employers should improve or be held accountable for the damage they are causing by requiring workers to endure such physiologically unsound working conditions.

So yes, if you work nights, STOP. Your pathetic shift differential is not worth it. Nothing is worth it. Put the onus back on the employers to come up with meaningful solutions and resist the temptation to sell yourselves so cheaply.

#grownostr

#thinkdangerously

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Discussion

G.M.Joe 2y ago

I don't think that this applies to all people. There are people that have a biorhythm that makes them nightowls.

Furthermore I worked night shifts for about a year. Not having to deal with dumbasses that make day shifts, having less noise reduces the stress in the work ours.

And domestic violence seems to be a bit far fetched deathcause of night shifts, isn't it?

Not my name 2y ago

Night owls exist. That is true. But the shift is limited. No human is designed to work throughout the night. Our biochemistry precludes it. There are ways to trick these systems partially but they are imperfect. And yes, you are strictly speaking correct when it comes to mortality (not studied), but domestic violence and relationship stress in general is a significant source of morbidity for shift workers.

Not my name 2y ago

I should add that there will necessarily be some for whom working nights offers advantages from a scheduling standpoint. Each person has unique circumstances after all.

The point of the post however is to highlight the fact that night shift work is hazardous with a capital H, with some calling it analogous to asbestos exposure. At the same time, it is a hazard that is drastically underplayed by employers and their media/academia puppets seeking to push profits yet again at the expense of employee health.

G.M.Joe 2y ago

Yep. Bit again chronobiology says that there are people that are nightowls. Their biorhythm just works the other way round.

LukeoftheOzarks 2y ago

There are a few people who do seem to be happy working nights. But the vast majority of people should not do it for any extended period of time. Even one or two nights a month disrupts your sleep for most of the month and keeps your bio rhythm dysregulated.

Second shift is a different matter in my opinion, and there are a good number of people who seem to adapt well to it.

Not my name 2y ago

Indeed. It seems like it has a clear dose response relationship, like radiation.

No exposure is best, very limited exposure (like second shifts or late shifts) may be tolerable, but extended exposure (involving frequent switching back and forth from day/night schedules, or years of shift work) is just plain terrible for you from a physiologic standpoint.

Not my name 2y ago

I personally find the research into how cellular and dna repair mechanisms are dependent on the melatonin sleep/wake axis most convincing and concerning.

That is to say nothing about all the other practical ways in which working nights can be disruptive.