Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Disruption of biological rhythms
- Shift lag
- Decreased alertness
- Boivin et al. (1982)
Anmerkungen:
- Night workers often experience a circadian 'trough' of decreased alertness during their shifts. This occurs between midnight, when cortisol levels are lowest, and 4.00 am, when core body temperature is at its lowest
- Sleep deprivation
- Tilley and
Wilkinson (1982)
Anmerkungen:
- Daytime sleep is typically between 1 and 2 hours shorter than a nocturnal sleep period. REM is particularly affected. This is because of interruptions such as noises outside
- Effects on health
- Knutsson et al. (1986)
Anmerkungen:
- Found that individuals who worked shifts for more than 15 years were 3 times more likely to develop heart disease than non-shift workers
- Martino et al. (2008)
Anmerkungen:
- Linked shift work to kidney disease. This may be due to the direct effects of desynchronisation or indirect effects such as sleep disruption
- Other effects
- Solomon (1993)
Anmerkungen:
- Divorce rates can be as high as 60% among all night-shift workers
- Reducing harmful effects
- Rotating shifts
- Gold et al. (1992)
Anmerkungen:
- Research indicates that more problems occur when people have to do rotating shifts
- Forward-rotating shifts
- Bambra et al. (2008)
Anmerkungen:
- Follow the logical order of the day (phase delay) and it may be easier on the body and less damaging to health
- Artificial lighting
- Gronfier et al. (2007)
Anmerkungen:
- Were able to entrain circadian rhythms to longer than 24 hours just by using bright light pulses
- Jet lag
- Performance decrement
- Recht et al. (1995)
Anmerkungen:
- Analysed US baseball results over a 3 year period. Teams that travelled east-west won on average 44% of their games, whereas when travelling west-east the percentage dropped to 37%
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea
- Disorientation
- Reducing harmful effects
- Melatonin
- Herxheimer and
Petrie (2001)
Anmerkungen:
- Reviewed 10 studies and found that where melatonin was taken near to bed-time, it was remarkably effective
- Social customs
- Fuller et al. (2008)
Anmerkungen:
- When travelling, it helps to eat at the right time and got to sleep when the clock says it's time to go to sleep. This research suggests that a period of fasting followed by eating on the new time schedule should help entrain biological rhythms