Dolly Parton famously sang that working from nine to five is “all taking and no giving.”
But according to a new study, working traditional hours can actually be good for you. This suggests that the shifts you work earlier in life may be linked to your health years later.
Scientists analyzed data from more than 7,000 people to see whether work patterns during younger adulthood were linked to sleep, physical or mental health when they reached age 50.
Dolly Parton famously sang that working from nine to five is “all taking and no giving.” But according to a new study, working traditional hours can actually be good for you. This suggests that the shifts you work earlier in life may be linked to your health years later. Dolly is pictured attending the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards in Frisco, Texas, 2023
Compared with people who worked mainly during the day, those whose careers had a more volatile work schedule slept less, had lower sleep quality and were more likely to report depressive symptoms at age 50, they found.
The most striking results were seen among those who had stable work hours at age 20 and then switched to more volatile work hours at age 30.
The researchers suggest that erratic work schedules are linked to poor sleep, physical fatigue and emotional exhaustion, which can make us vulnerable to unhealthy living.
The study also suggests that positive and negative effects of work schedules on health can accumulate over a person’s life and lead to health inequalities in old age.
Professor Wen-Jui Han, from New York University, was the lead author of the study.
She said: ‘About three-quarters of the working patterns we observed were not strictly consistent with stable daytime working throughout our working years.
Poor work schedules are linked to poor sleep, physical fatigue and emotional exhaustion, which can make us vulnerable to unhealthy living
‘This has consequences. People with work patterns that involve some degree of volatility and variability were more likely to have fewer hours of sleep per day, lower sleep quality, lower physical and mental function, and a greater likelihood of reporting poor health and depressive symptoms at 50 years than people with stable work schedules.’
She explained that people with variable work patterns were ‘significantly more likely’ to report poor health, even compared to those who were unemployed.
“Flexible work patterns can be a chronic stressor in our lives,” she added.
The study, published in the journal Plos One, also found that black participants with low levels of education and varying work schedules were most likely to report poor health.
Previous studies have shown that shift work is also linked to poorer memory and slower mental processing.
Researchers have suggested that working outside traditional hours disrupts the circadian rhythm – our internal body clock – causing people to miss out on good quality sleep, which can affect the brain.