PNNL

Richland, Wash.—Working the night shift can be taxing on the body. Over the course of just a few days, a night shift schedule can knock the body's biological rhythms off course, disrupting important processes related to blood glucose regulation, energy metabolism and inflammation, according to new work published today in the Journal of Proteome Research. The findings shed new light on the processes behind night shift workers' greater likelihood of developing diabetes, obesity and other metabolic disorders. 

Led by scientists from Washington State University and the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the research demonstrates that such disruptions can crop up in just three days, highlighting both the importance of early intervention and the dangers of going against the body's internal clock.  

“What we showed is that we can really see a difference in molecular patterns between volunteers with normal schedules and those with schedules that are misaligned with their biological clock,” said Jason McDermott, a computational scientist with PNNL’s Biological Sciences Division and coauthor of the new work. “The effects of this misalignment had not yet been characterized at this molecular level and in this controlled manner before.”

The new work builds upon a body of research that explores just how damaging this form of stress may be. 

“There are processes tied to the master biological clock in our brain that are saying that day is day and night is night and other processes that follow rhythms set elsewhere in the body that say night is day and day is night,” said senior study author Hans Van Dongen, a professor in the Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. “When internal rhythms are dysregulated, you have this enduring stress in your system that we believe has long-term health consequences.”

For more information, please see the WSU news release.