Working irregular shifts makes your brain age quicker, according to a new study.
Scientists from southern France assessed the mental abilities of over 3,000 people three times during a 10-year period (at one-year, five-years, and 10-years). Participants were aged 32, 42, 52 and 62 at the time of the first test.
Just under half of the study participants had shift work experience during the first test.
The study, which was published online in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine, found that shift work (working various shifts including morning, afternoon, and night) was associated with impaired cognition.
"It was quite a substantial decline in brain function," Dr. Phillip Tucker, a scientist on the research team, tells Inquisitir of their findings. "It is likely that when people trying to undertake complex cognitive tasks then they might make more mistakes and slip-ups, maybe one in 100 makes a mistake with a very large consequence, but it's hard to say how big a difference it would make in day-to-day life."
People who do shift work for 10-years will in turn have cognitive loss equivalent to 6.5 years of age-related decline in the current cohort, according to the study.
However, the effects shift work has on the brain appears to be reversible. The study also showed that after stopping working shift work for five years the brain repairs itself.
