Rotating Night Shift Work and Type 2 Diabetes in Women

A new study found that the longer women worked rotating night shifts, the greater their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Researchers also found that extended years of rotating night shift work was associated with weight gain. The weight gain may have contributed to the increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

Women who worked rotating night shifts for three to nine years faced a 20 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Women who worked nights for 10 to 19 years had a 40 percent rise in risk. And women who worked night shifts for over 20 years were 58 percent more at risk. Women who worked rotating night shifts also gained more weight and were more likely to become obese during the follow-up.

Rotating night shift work was defined as three or more night shifts plus day and evening hours each month. The Harvard School of Public Health tracked more than 175,000 U.S. nurses for this study. Findings were published Dec. 6 in the journal PLoS Medicine.

Researchers said the findings need to be confirmed in men and ethnic groups (96 percent of the nurses were white Caucasians). The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 15 million Americans work full time on evening shifts, night shifts, rotating shifts or other irregular schedules.

Read more about shift work sleep disorder and women’s sleep needs. More stories about sleep and type 2 diabetes are available on the Sleep Education Blog.

Photo by DIAC Images

Second Air Traffic Controller Sleeps through Midnight Shift

For the second time in two months, an air traffic controller was caught sleeping on the job. A Federal Aviation Administration report says the unnamed controller didn’t accidently doze off - he intentionally slept for five hours.

The incident happened at McGee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tenn. on February 19 – more than a month before a supervisor working alone at Washington’s Reagan National Airport unintentionally fell asleep for nearly a half-hour.

Unlike the incident a month ago, the Knoxville controller is being fired by the government for “unprofessional and inappropriate behavior.”

It’s easy to blame an irresponsible employee, but as the Sleep Education Blog reported recently, the problem runs much deeper.

Air traffic controllers face notoriously difficult sleep schedules. One common schedule for air traffic controllers known as the “rattler” involves returning to work a midnight shift only hours after working a daytime shift. The nickname “rattler” comes from the damage the shift does to sleep patterns.

The problem of fatigued air traffic controllers are hardly a new one. In 2007, the National Transportation Safety Board released a report that shed light on how sleep deprivation affects job performance. The report revealed that air traffic controllers get an average of only 2.3 hours of sleep before a midnight shift. Rapidly rotating shifts and short rest periods between shifts lead workers to be fatigued before a shift even begins.

To make things worse, most midnight-shift air traffic controllers work alone. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association emphasizes staffing problems as the cause for both cases, and is demanding there be extra controllers during overnight shifts as safety measure.

The FAA is hesitant to hire, because air traffic controllers generally earn high pay and have pricey benefits. The U.S. Labor Department Bureau of Statistics reports that the average salary of air traffic controllers was $109,218 in March 2009. Transportation officials may have a difficult time justifying that kind of cost in the current political and budgetary climate on Capitol Hill.

It’s possible that air traffic controllers will see some type of regulation that affects their schedules as a reaction to both incidents. In the meantime, the AASM has provided air traffic controllers and shift workers with a list of tips that can help with the midnight shift.

Shift Work May Cause Swell in Sleep Apnea Symptoms

A new study provides further health concerns for the estimated 20 million Americans who sleep during the daytime because of their work schedule. The symptoms of untreated obstructive sleep apnea may be worse for shift workers, a new study reports.

The study compared a group of 31 shift workers to ten daytime workers. Members in both groups were previously diagnosed with sleep apnea and had similar ages, weights and sleep lengths.

Daytime and nighttime polysomnograph results show that the shift workers had more frequent breathing pauses in breathing and higher oxygen desaturation levels. Both measures show that shift workers had more severe symptoms of sleep apnea.

The authors of the study caution that patients with untreated sleep apnea should avoid nighttime work. The Sleep Education Blog urges workers with sleep apnea to take that warning one step further and never let sleep apnea go untreated. Sleep apnea has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, dementia and other serious health problems.

Shift work also can also harm your health. Some workers may struggle with shift work disorder, which causes your internal body clock to go awry. Workers with shift work disorder may be severely tired but unable to sleep. Loss of sleep length and quality may affect job performance and put workers at risk for injury.

Read more about obstructive sleep apnea and shift work disorder.