Night shift work would cause some healthy problems
Night shift work may stop the body repairing daily damage to DNA and raise the risk of mutations that lead to cancer, a new study suggests.
US researchers have discovered that when people work nights they produce 80% less of a chemical that is a by-product of DNA tissue repair.
This indicates that the body is not carrying out the crucial restoration to cells that should happen naturally overnight.
Scientists believe the effect could be caused by a lack of melatonin, the sleep hormone, which is far lower among people who sleep in the daytime.
They believe that shift workers may need to take sleep hormone supplements to allow DNA to carry out repairs as they sleep in the day.
If such effects are confirmed, melatonin supplementation should be explored as an intervention to reduce the occurrence of potentially carcinogenic DNA damage among shift workers, said Dr Parveen Bhatti from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.