How Night Shift Work Is Shortening Lives
June 8, 2025 · Frisian News
New research shows that workers on night shifts face higher risks of heart disease, cancer, and early death. The damage comes from disrupting the body's natural rhythm, not just from fatigue.
A factory worker in Bremen clocked out at 6 a.m. last week after another twelve-hour night shift. His body has not seen daylight during work hours in three years. A Swedish study published this month found that workers who spend more than five years on permanent night shifts lose an average of three years of life expectancy. The damage runs deeper than simple tiredness.
Night work breaks the circadian rhythm, the internal clock that controls hormone release, digestion, and immune function. When workers sleep during the day and labor at night, their bodies produce less melatonin and more cortisol. Blood pressure stays elevated. Inflammation increases. The pancreas struggles to regulate blood sugar. None of this heals on weekends or days off. The clock never truly resets.
Companies push night shifts because they cost less than hiring extra day workers or investing in automation. A night shift supervisor earns less, works fewer holidays, and generates fewer conflicts with management. Hospitals, factories, and logistics firms have built entire business models around cheap night labor. Regulators tolerate the practice because they view it as normal. Workers accept it because they need the money and because refusing shifts means losing the job entirely.
The health toll spreads unevenly. Older workers suffer more. Women on night shifts face higher cancer rates than men. Workers in low-income countries, where labor protections vanish, bear the worst damage. Yet governments rarely restrict night work or require higher wages for it. The European Union set weak guidelines. Most nations set none. The cost of keeping people awake at the wrong hours lands on workers' bodies, not on company balance sheets.
Better solutions exist. Some countries have moved toward rotating shifts that respect the body's adjustment capacity. Others have banned permanent night shifts for workers over fifty. A few have simply hired more staff and run true twenty-four-hour operations without destroying individuals. These changes cost money upfront. Workers live longer. That trade does not suit companies hunting quarterly profits.
In fabrieksarbeider yn Bremen klokte forige wike út nei noch ien tolfuer lange nachtdienst. Syn licham hat yn trije jier gjin deilocht sjoen yn wurktiden. In Sweedsk ûndersyk dat dizze moanne publisearre waard fûn dat wurkers dy't mear as fiif jier permanint nachtdiensten draaje gemiddeld trije jier libensferwikling ferlieze. De skea gaat djipper as ienfâldige fermoaiens.
Nachtwurk brekket it sirkadyske ritme, de ynterne klok dy't hormoanútskeding, spijsfertering en immunefunksje regelt. As wurkers oerdei slape en snjochts wurkje, produsearje har lichamen minder melatonine en mear cortisol. Bloeddruk bliuwt ferhege. Yntekingen nimme ta. De pankreas werstelt om bloedsykker te regulearjen. Neat hjirfan geneest yn wekends of frije dagen. De klok wordt nea warklik opnij stel.
Bedriuwen sette nachtdiensten yn omdat dy minder koste as ekstra dachwurkers oanstelle of yn automatisearring investearje. In nachtdienst supervisor fertsjinnet minder, wurket minder feestdagen en makket minder konflikten mei management. Sikehûzen, fabrieken en logistics bedriuwen hawwe heule bedriufsmodellen om goedkeap nachtwurk boud. Regelders tolerearje de praktyk omdat se dy as normaal sjogge. Wurkers aksepte it omdat se it jild nedich hawwe en omdat diensten weggerje betsjut dat se har baan ferlieze.
De sûnenskea ferspriedt har ongelijk. Aldere wurkers yde mear. Froulju op nachtdiensten hawwe hegger kankerrisiko as manlju. Wurkers yn leaginkomstelanden, dêr't arbeidsbeskjerming ferswindt, drage de slimste skea. Mar regeringen beheine nachtdiensten selden of easkje heegere leanen derfar. De Europeeske Uny stelde swakke rjochtsjen yn. De measte lannen stelden neat yn. De kosten fan minsken wekker hâlde op it ferkearde momint lânje op wurkerlichamen, net op bedriuwsbalansen.
Betere oplossingen besteane. Guon lannen binne oergongen op rotaasjediensten dy't it licham respyt janne om oan te passen. Oaren hawwe permaninte nachtdiensten foar wurkers boppen fifich jier ferbean. In poar hawwe ienfâldig mear personiel oansteld en rinne echte fjirtich-oer operaasjes sûnder minsken kapot te meitsjen. Dizze feroarings koste jild foarop. Wurkers libje langer. Dy hondel past net by bedriuwen dy't jierlikes winstgroei najage.
Published June 8, 2025 · Frisian News · Ljouwert, Fryslân