The hidden cost of the night shift and how to sleep it off - BBC

What the report says

BBC News reports that more than three million people in the UK work night shifts, despite growing evidence that working against the body’s internal clock can carry health costs. The article, by science correspondent Pallab Ghosh, describes the problem through workers such as doctors, nurses, paramedics, engineers, lorry drivers and factory staff who remain active overnight and then often struggle to sleep during daylight hours.

The BBC article explains that sleep is not just rest: researchers say it helps memory, emotional processing, immune function and tissue repair. It cites Oxford sleep scientist Prof Russell Foster, who argues sleep should be treated as a core part of health. The report also highlights research into the brain’s “glymphatic” cleaning system, including work by Prof Hugh Markus at the University of Cambridge and Yutong Chen using UK Biobank brain scans. Markus told the BBC that impaired fluid flow in the brain appeared to help predict later dementia, while cautioning that this remains a hypothesis and that vascular risks such as blood pressure, smoking and diabetes also matter.

The BBC also points to wider concerns: a Swedish Karolinska Institute study of more than 13,000 shift workers associated mid-life shift work with a 36% higher dementia risk, while other research links short sleep with inflammation, cortisol changes and insulin resistance. The article notes that the World Health Organization’s cancer agency classifies night shift work as probably carcinogenic to humans.

As a possible mitigation, the BBC reports on Dr Line Victoria Moen’s research in northern Norway, where shift workers tracked with wearable devices often slept in two blocks rather than one daytime stretch. Scientists are studying whether planned biphasic sleep, including a later nap, could better support night workers who cannot avoid disrupted schedules.