In today’s time, shift duty has become very much popular among employees. Shift work basically involves doing work in unusual hours of the day. Normal shift involves working somewhere between 6 am to 6 pm but shift work includes night shift too. Normal shift gives workers time to rest as well as sleep, which is a nighttime activity, but shift duty can alter your day to night cycle. It is seen that most of the jobs nowadays have shift duty and employees have to adapt themselves to the change. However, this change can leave a negative impact on shift duty workers like nurses, police officers, bartenders etc.
Shift duty can undoubtedly change your sleeping, eating and working pattern which can have an inverse effect on your health. The industrial revolution and so much of work burden have led to extended hours of work for employees. According to some experts, the abnormal working pattern can increase the risk of health and mental disorders for workers. Shift pattern does not only include night shift but other odd shifts like evening shift, rotating shifts, etc. in order to assist the shift duty workers, there should be an availability of first aid box filled with health products. The employees who give their consent for shift duty are either pressurized because of financial needs or they take it as a path to success. In any case, it can take a toll on their health.
There are many serious health problems related to shift work such as; cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, stomach problems, and ulcer, etc. Working on odd hours of the day can not only affect your physical health but also mental health. For many, it causes depression, stress, and sleeping problem. Shift work can affect our lifestyle as well as our biology, which is health and fitness. Shift duty can cause a disturbance in sleeping which can turn your mood off and make you sullen for the entire day. We humans have a circadian rhythm according to which our body function and this can be changed because of the shift duty. Changes in circadian rhythm along with the stress and deficiency of sleep can affect your efficiency at work. The people doing shift duty are more prone to accident and injuries than those who are doing normal shift. Shift duty can affect your reproductive ability also; it can increase the risk of abortion and prematurity for working women.