Research shows that working crazy hours can increase the likelihood of depression and chronic illness.
According to a new study published in Plus oneResearch indicates that working late into the night and having crazy schedules as a young adult can lead to a higher risk of depression and poor health in middle age.
After examining the work schedules and sleep patterns of 7,000 Americans over three decades, the study's author, Professor Wen-Jui Han of New York University, found that only a quarter of the participants worked during the day. .
Those who participated in the study were interviewed between the ages of 22 and 50, and three-quarters of the study sample were American workers born in the 1960s. Unlike workers with daytime schedules, workers with nighttime schedules or rotating shifts when they were younger, ultimately had difficulty sleeping and were more likely to experience poor health and depression in their 50s.
After working too many hours and adopting the hustle culture mentality for decades, Han's doctor told him, when he was 40, that he had the biological age of a 60-year-old. This led her to study whether working long hours could affect long-term health.
“Our work is now making us sick and poor,” Han explained to NPR in a Zoom interview. “Work is supposed to allow us to accumulate resources. But, for many people, their job doesn't allow them to do so. In fact, over time they become more and more miserable.”
Han said she hopes her research will “provide resources to help people live happy and healthy lives when they are physically exhausted and emotionally drained because of their work.”
“We can say they voluntarily want to work long hours, but in reality, it's not about voluntarily working long hours,” Han said. “They feel that their work culture requires them to work long hours, or they may be penalized.”
In his research, he found that those who sacrificed adequate rest for work were statistically more likely to suffer from depression or health problems.
She said: “When our work becomes a daily stressor, these are the kind of health consequences that can be expected 30 years from now.”
The study may have linked night work and rotating shifts to poor sleep and poor health, but could not find substantial evidence that one directly causes the other. However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that lack of sleep can lead to a higher chance of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
