The change is subtle, but it is literally altering the physical structure of the brain itself.
Working the night shift can seem quite peaceful. It is true that we need to be alert to suspicious figures and thieves, but the world is quieter, calmer.
It’s easy to see the appeal. At least until the science is known that shows how night work can reduce the volume of some parts of the brain.
In a new, recently published in the magazine NeuroImage, a team of Researchers analyzed data from 14,198 participants from the UK Biobank. They concluded that people who regularly work night shifts have small but measurable reductions in amygdala volume left and right thalamus.
This Doesn’t mean the brain is falling apartnote a . Changes are, at best, modest.
Still, they were consistent enough for researchers to detect in a broad population sample. The most relevant fact is that the same areas were repeatedly affected, explains .
A amygdala plays an important role in emotional regulation, while the thalamus functions as a kind of relay center involved in various functions, such as attention, memory and sleep-wake cycles.
This means that working overnight, while most people are resting, interferes with regions of the brain associated with moodconcentration and sleep quality — which makes sense, considering that people who work nights spend years going against their body’s natural sleep schedule.
A circadian rhythm disruption seems to be the central element of this problem. If we add this data to previous studies that, for a long time, associate shift work, especially night work, with several health problems physical and mental health, such as depression, cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes, a clearer picture of the risks of working overnight begins to form.
The only positive note is that the research concluded that participants who stopped working night shifts managed to stop the loss of brain volume after approximately 2.4 years, with there still being faint signs of recovery.
Although it remains to be demonstrated whether a brain affected by night work can fully recover from the damage it has suffered, there is at least a small hope that these changes are not permanent.
