This shifting is known to be associated with temporary insomnia. It also produces a biological stress likely to have significant adverse effects.
A recent study helps to potentially understand some of the ways shift work may affect cognition.
A group of researcher from Sweden examined a database of 7000 subjects. This cohort completes a series of comprehensive interviews as well as neuropsychological tests including one known as the Trail Making test. The Trail Making test is a type of timed connect the dots test that measures psychomotor speed and visuomotor processing.
Active and recent shift workers in the study performed significantly slower on the Trail Making test than those with regular work cycles.
This study is limited by the cross sectional design and correlation does not equal causation. However it does suggest that shift work may contribute to impairment in a significant area of cognitive performance.
You can read more about this study at MedicalXpress HERE.
The free full-text manuscript can be accessed HERE (click on PDF link).
Follow me on Twitter HERE.
Photo is from my personal files showing a landscape on the Italian Riviera.
No comments:
Post a Comment