Free-Living Sleep, Food Intake, and Physical Activity in Night and Morning Shift Workers

Abstract

Objective: Shift work is associated with risk for adverse health outcomes including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and obesity. Short sleep duration combined with disruptions to the circadian system may alter factors involved with the behavioral regulation of energy intake and expenditure. We aimed to determine how shift work affects sleep, food intake, and physical activity.

Methods: This was a field-based observational study using objective assessments of sleep and physical activity and a 24-hour dietary recall in shift workers. Day (n = 12) and night (n = 12) hospital shift workers (nurses and technicians) who were women had their free-living sleep and physical activity tracked via accelerometry, and completed a computer-assisted 24-hour food recall, during a series of work shifts.

Results: Compared to day workers, night workers had significantly shorter sleep duration and reported more premature awakenings and feeling less refreshed upon awakening. Daily self-reported energy and macronutrient intakes were not different between groups, although the night shift workers reported a significantly longer total daily eating duration window than day workers. Objectively recorded physical activity levels were not different between groups.

Conclusions: The present findings confirm that sleep is disturbed in women night workers, while there are relatively less effects on objectively recorded physical activity and self-reported food intake. We also observed a prolonged daily eating duration in night vs. day workers. These observations can help inform the design of novel behavioral interventions, including, potentially, time restricted feeding approaches (e.g., by limiting daily eating episodes to within a 10–12 h window), to optimize weight management in shift workers.

Keywords:

• Shift work
• sleep
• food intake
• physical activity
• obesity

Additional information

Funding

This publication was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through Grant Number UL1TR000040. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.