Night Tours Can Hurt Your Health
A new study shows cops who work the late shift are more likely to get Type 2 diabetes, but there are steps you can take to avoid it.
It turns out that working nights can increase your chances of getting Type 2 diabetes. This is just one more study validating the claim that the late shift is harmful to your health. Police associations and the officers themselves are hoping these findings may lead to an increase in pay for people assigned to the graveyard shift.
According to a report in The New York Times, by Nicholas Bakalar, “British researchers used a large health database to compare diabetes prevalence in 47,286 night-shift workers with that of 224,928 day workers. The database included information on age, sex, race, family history of diabetes, alcohol use, sleep duration, body mass index and other health and behavioral characteristics, as well as diagnoses of diabetes.
“After controlling for many other factors associated with diabetes, they found that the more often people worked nights, the more likely they were to have diabetes. Compared with day workers, people who occasionally worked night shifts were 15 percent more likely to have diabetes; those who rotated shifts with some night work were 18 percent more likely; and those who worked irregular shifts with frequent night shifts were 44 percent more likely to have Type 2 diabetes. The study is in Diabetes Care.
“The lead author, Céline Vetter, an associate professor at the University of Colorado, said that night-shift work can cause misalignment of circadian rhythms, reduced energy expenditure, and partial sleep restriction, which can all contribute to the risk.”
“We appreciate that in some industries — health care, safety — we can’t get around night-shift work. Try to prioritize sleep, be physically active, keep a healthy weight. It’s even more important when you work nights.”
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