Michael Farquhar: We must recognise the health effects associated with shift working (BMJ, 6 October 2017)

Summary

Over 3 million people in Britain—more than 1 in 8 of the workforce—regularly work at night, many providing essential, critical services on which Britain’s smooth running depends. They are doctors, nurses, police, firefighters, paramedics, transport and maintenance crews, cleaners, call-centre workers, bakers, security guards, factory workers … all ensuring your life runs like clockwork in the daytime. For them, the experience of working against their body clocks, of feeling jet-lagged, isn’t an occasional annoyance due to travel—it’s a regular fact of life.

We must recognise that when we ask people to work at night that there are consequences.

As well as increased risks of long-term health problems associated with shiftworking, night workers are vulnerable in other ways, including a significantly increased risk of death by accident just trying to get home to their beds in the morning.