Cognitive Effects of Shift Work
Compared with the day shift, incidents has been estimated to increase by 15% on evening shifts and 28% on night shifts.
One study suggests that, for those working a night shift (such as 23:00 to 07:00), it may be advantageous to sleep in the evening (14:00 to 22:00) rather than the morning (08:00 to 16:00). The study's evening sleep subjects had 37% fewer episodes of attentional impairment than the morning sleepers.
There are four major determinants of cognitive performance and alertness in healthy shift-workers. They are: circadian phase, sleep inertia, acute sleep deprivation and chronic sleep deficit.
The circadian phase is relatively fixed in humans; attempting to shift it so that an individual is alert during the circadian bathyphase is difficult. Sleep during the day is shorter and less consolidated than night-time sleep.
The effects of sleep inertia wear off after 2-4 hours of wakefulness, such that most workers who wake up in the morning and go to work suffer some degree of sleep inertia at the beginning of their shift. The relative effects of sleep inertia vs. the other factors are hard to quantify; however, the benefits of napping appear to outweigh the cost associated with sleep inertia.
Read more about this topic: Shift Work
Famous quotes containing the words cognitive, effects, shift and/or work:
“Ideas are so much flat psychological surface unless some mirrored matter gives them cognitive lustre. This is why as a pragmatist I have so carefully posited ‘reality’ ab initio, and why throughout my whole discussion, I remain an epistemologist realist.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“Let us learn to live coarsely, dress plainly, and lie hard. The least habit of dominion over the palate has certain good effects not easily estimated.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The frantic search of five-year-olds for friends can thus be seen to forecast the beginnings of a basic shift in the parent-child relationship, a shift which will occur gradually over many long years, and in which a child needs not only the support of child allies engaged in the same struggle but also the understanding of his parents.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)
“To see distinctly the machinery—the wheels and pinions—of any work of Art is, unquestionably, of itself, a pleasure, but one which we are able to enjoy only just in proportion as we do not enjoy the legitimate effect designed by the artist.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)