How Sleep Deprivation Affects Cognitive Function in Those Working Shifts

Sleep deprivation associated with working during regular sleeping hours, or working shifts, can be detrimental to awareness and alertness. In turn, working around heavy equipment or behind the wheel can be dangerous if you’re not sufficiently alert. Less clear is whether or how other factors such as work stress and sleep quality interact with shift work to affect cognitive function. In addition, given gender differences in the processes involving sleep, health and stress, it is also unclear if these factors may affect cognition differently in women and men.

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Information provided by Elaine Dawson, RN, COHN