The study stated that around 20% of employees from Europe worked atypical shifts or hours. The increase of employees that work at different hours added to scientific evidence that deviated sleep schedules impacted heart health.
It may not only be due to sleep since other factors like unhealthy behaviors can add to the risk of heart disease. However, this study focused on circadian misalignment, which differentiates a person’s “biological clock” and their social clock (like work schedules).
Circadian Rhythm: Larks and Owls
According to the study, everyone has an internal biological clock, and they get placed into two categories. The first is a lark, a morning person who has energy in the day and gets tired in the evening.
The second type, owls, is the opposite of a lark. They have more energy at night and tend to get sleepy when it is almost morning or in the morning. It is also possible for a person to fall in between those types.
Circadian misalignment happens when the body does not get to follow its regular sleep schedule. Let’s say that you normally go to bed at 10-11pm and wake up at 6-7am. Circadian misalignment would occur if you are forced to work until 12-2am.
To perform the study, they got 301 employees that were from Portugal. All the employees worked in a retail company’s distribution warehouses to do manual picking activity.
The staff would work three different shifts, from 6am-3pm, 3pm-12 am, and 9pm-6am. The participants were also surveyed for age, education, seniority at work, lifestyle, etc. Additionally, the participants got their cholesterol and blood pressure measured.
Moreover, a questionnaire (Munich ChronoType) was also used in the study to estimate the participants’ internal biological clock and sleep duration. The questionnaire was also used to see how much a person’s working hours did not match with their natural biological clock, producing circadian misalignment.
The participants were divided into groups according to their social jetlag hours. The groups were as followed:
- 2 hours or shorter
- 2-4 hours
- 4 hours or longer
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