Most Individuals Who Regularly Work Night Shifts Develop Some Kind of Sleep Disorder, Effect Most Prominent in Young Adults [Study]

Working at night could take a toll on your health. It has been learned that most of those who work night jobs end up developing some sleep disorder.

Night Job Could Cause Sleep Disorder?

In a new study, 37,662 people provided work and sleep data to researchers from the Netherlands and Belgium. The participants were divided into groups based on whether they worked during the day or at night.

The surveys were used to screen for six main categories of sleep disorders: hypersomnia (extreme daytime drowsiness), parasomnia (abnormal movements or dreams), insomnia, breathing problems associated with sleep, movement disorders related to sleep, and circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders.

"We showed that compared to working regular shifts during daytime hours, working other shift types is associated with a higher occurrence of disordered sleep, particularly in rotating and regular night shift work," said sleep scientist Marike Lancel from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

"Of note, 51 percent of people working nights scored positive for at least one sleep disorder."

When all job schedules were considered for the duration of the study, almost one in three participants had at least one sleep disturbance. There were two or more sleep disorders reported by 26% of typical night shift workers.

The group also broke down the outcomes according to various demographic criteria. Men often slept for fewer hours, but women experienced sleep difficulties more frequently. While older individuals slept longer on average, younger participants under thirty were more prone to suffer from sleep disturbances.

Education was also taken into consideration; it appears that younger, less educated individuals are more susceptible to disruptions in their sleep and wakefulness habits.

"The effects of shift work on sleep are most prominent in young adults with a lower education," says Lancel.

Women More Resilient To Sleep Deprivation

According to Jessica Mong, co-author of one of the studies and professor of neuropharmacology, and her colleagues found that astrocyte cells, non-neuronal cells found in the preoptic region of the brain, an area involved in sleep regulation, may mediate the effects of estrogen hormones on sleep.

Astrocytes are classified as glial cells (the term "glial" comes from the Latin word "glue"). It was once thought that these glial cells, like astrocytes, exclusively provided the brain's neurons with structural support. Over the last 30 years, research has shown this is not true. It's very recent to learn that astrocytes play a part in regulating sleep. Moreover, oversleeping is an entirely new function of estrogen action.

This suggests that [estrogen] may stimulate or activate the astrocytes, which communicate with the sleep-regulating neurons in the [preoptic area].

It is one of the earliest signs of how [estrogen] can regulate sleep. The finding is significant because it may help identify future targets for drugs and sleep aids that are more effective for women.

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