Doing the night shift throws the body “into chaos” and could cause long-term damage, warn researchers.
Shift work has been linked to higher rates of type 2 diabetes, heart attacks and cancer. Now scientists at the Sleep Research Centre in Surrey, England have uncovered the disruption shift work causes at the deepest molecular level. Experts said the scale, speed and severity of damage caused by being awake at night was a surprise.
The human body has its own natural rhythm or body clock tuned to sleep at night and be active during the day. It has profound effects on the body, altering everything from hormones and body temperature to athletic ability, mood and brain function.
Photo courtesy of Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital
照片由新光吳火獅紀念醫院提供
The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, followed 22 people as their body was shifted from a normal pattern to that of a night-shift worker.
Blood tests showed that normally six percent of genes were precisely timed to be more or less active at specific times of the day. Once the volunteers were working through the night, that genetic fine-tuning was lost.
(Liberty Times)
做夜班工作讓身體「陷入混亂」，可能造成長期傷害，研究人員警告。
一直以來，夜班工作被指與第二型糖尿病、心臟病發與癌症罹患率較高有關。現在英國薩里的「睡眠研究中心」科學家發現，夜班工作造成分子層最深層的混亂。專家說，晚上醒著造成的傷害，在規模、速度與嚴重性上都讓人驚訝。
人體有自己的自然節奏，或稱生理時鐘，會在夜晚進入睡眠，白天保持活躍。這對身體有深層影響，會改變從荷爾蒙、體溫到運動能力、心情與大腦功能的所有東西。
這項刊登在「美國國家科學院院刊」的研究，追蹤身體從正常模式轉變為夜班工作人員模式的二十二人。
血液檢測顯示，正常來說，百分之六的基因一天內較活躍或較不活躍的時間都設定的非常精確。一旦志願者整晚工作，這種基因的微調就會消失。
（自由時報／翻譯：國際新聞中心）
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