A study from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health has found that while it may not be easy, getting at least seven hours of sleep a day could lessen the negative health consequences for those who do shifts outside the 9-to-5 schedule.
Using 2008-2012 data from the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin, researchers found that shift workers were significantly more likely to be overweight (47.9% vs. 34.7% for traditional schedule workers). They also had more sleep problems, including insomnia (23.6% vs. 16.3%) and insufficient sleep (53.0% vs. 42.9%).
Led by Dr. Marjory Givens, the team found sleep problems to be positively associated with being overweight/obese or diabetic, and they found that the association between shiftwork and being overweight or diabetic was stronger when shiftworkers got insufficient sleep (less than seven hours per day).
The findings suggest that a focus on getting sufficient sleep could at least partially alleviate the negative metabolic effects of shiftwork.
