Research Suggests Effects of Shift Work or Jet Lag On Our Body Clocks Can Be Reduced By Simply Changing Meal Times (qz.com)

Jonathan Johnston reports via Quartz: Around one in five people in Western countries could be putting their health at risk simply by going to work. This is because working shifts outside of the rest of the population's normal hours has been linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and even declines in brain function. Scientists think this is because our bodies are programmed to run on cycles known as circadian rhythms, and changes in our routine caused by shift work or traveling long distances disrupts those rhythms. But our new research suggests that the effects of shift work or jet lag on our body clocks could be reduced simply by changing the times at which people eat. The key to this theory is the idea that each person doesn't just have a single body clock but rather a complex network of billions of cellular clocks found throughout the body. In humans and other mammals, there is a master clock within a region of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) and many peripheral clocks found elsewhere. For our research, we wanted to see how one aspect of this approach -- changing meal times -- affected circadian rhythms. We found that delaying meals by a certain amount caused a similar shift in some peripheral clocks, without changing the master clock. This is important because research in animals suggests peripheral clocks take longer to adjust to a new routine.

Comments

Tweaking the human

[rmdingler]

It's an interesting study, but ATFA, human trials were administered on ten healthy males for eleven days. By delaying the mealtime routine, blood glucose levels were affected... not exactly startling.

If it's true the people already affected by a lifestyle that conflicts with circadian rhythms are not typically pictures of health, we probably need a larger sample that includes overweight, jet-lagged, burnouts with dark circles under their eyes.

There seems to be enough evidence that routine within the many thousand year-old light and dark cycle is the healthiest lifestyle, but since somebody's got to man the late shift, tweaking the biological clock may be a great second option.

Re:Tweaking the human

[Brett Buck]

Eleven days is not *nearly* long enough to make any useful conclusions. I have done a lot of swings and graveyard work in the past, and it always took me and all my fellow workers took weeks and weeks to see the full effect. It would take even longer now (~30 years on). As noted in another response, switching shifts after a few weeks is even worse, because then you never get to any sort of stable equilibrium (stable, not good). Of course, we tried various approaches to cope and many of them seemed OK for very short periods of 10-11 days, but later stopped working and caused worse problems than doing nothing special.

How about just not changing shifts?

[Rande]

If someone is happy to do night shift or graveyard shift, don't keep switching it around every 2-3 weeks with the inevitable disruption.

I still haven't heard anyone explain _why_ workplaces want to keep regularly changing everyones shifts.

It takes me up to a week to get used to a new sleep schedule, so my body would be screwed up for 2 weeks every month if I had to do changing shifts.

Re:How about just not changing shifts?

[radarskiy]

"If someone is happy to do night shift or graveyard shift"

a) There aren't enough people who prefer a permanent night shift to staff a permanent night shift
b) People on opposite shifts need to meet on occasion.
c) People on shift work need to deal with the outside world not on shift work.
d) Even if the night shift is preferred, there is always the initial change to the night shift when first taking the job.

Re:How about just not changing shifts?

[Kierthos]

You aren't kidding.

I did the graveyard shift at a FedEx Office (before it was known as such) for over a decade. During that time, I worked with easily a dozen other people on that shift, most of whom couldn't hack it.

Not in terms of work or anything. They just found it very hard to adjust to sleeping during the day, and working at night. (One poor guy was trying to be a full time student, work the graveyard shift, and work part time at his church. He.... didn't last long at the store.)

And every once in a while, my manager would insist that I show up at the generally pointless store meetings. He finally understood why I wasn't showing up when I explained it as "Okay, go home. relax a little. Have dinner. Go to bed. And then, three hours later, get up, stay up for an hour and a half, and then go back to bed. And see how effective you are in the morning when you're supposed to come in."

Alas, shortly after he understood it, he transferred to another store, and I had to go through the whole rigamarole with a new manager.

How ?

[religionofpeas]

Research Suggests Effects of Shift Work or Jet Lag On Our Body Clocks Can Be Reduced By Simply Changing Meal Times

Don't most people already change their meal times to align with the new time zone ?

Re:Better yet, eat food endemic to arriving countr

[Opportunist]

Or have some tap water right after arriving in Mexico, you wouldn't believe how your body adjusts and how you can stay awake.

Re:This just in!

[Mr D from 63]

Water is wet...

News at 11

No sheet. I've been adjusting my meals ahead of time as a matter of routine. Don't eat dinner on a US flight to Europe when it is 2 am there. I figured that out after my first trip.