Hacia un trabajo nocturno más saludable: la necesidad de estrategias nutricionales, de bienestar y organizacionales Translated title: Towards a healthier night shift: the need for nutritional, well-being, and organizational strategies

The paper gives an overview of the problems to be tackled nowadays by occupational health with regards to shift work as well as the main guidelines at organizational and medical levels on how to protect workers' health and well-being. Working time organization is becoming a key factor on account of new technologies, market globalization, economic competition, and extension of social services to general populations, all of which involve more and more people in continuous assistance and control of work processes over the 24 hours in a day. The large increase of epidemiological and clinical studies on this issue document the severity of this risk factor on human health and well being, at both social and psychophysical levels, starting from a disruption of biological circadian rhythms and sleep/wake cycle and ending in several psychosomatic troubles and disorders, likely also including cancer, and extending to impairment of performance efficiency as well as family and social life. Appropriate interventions on the organization of shift schedules according to ergonomic criteria and careful health surveillance and social support for shift workers are important preventive and corrective measures that allow people to keep working without significant health impairment.

There are three mechanisms that may contribute to the health, performance, and safety problems associated with night-shift work: (1) circadian misalignment between the internal circadian clock and activities such as work, sleep, and eating, (2) chronic, partial sleep deprivation, and (3) melatonin suppression by light at night. The typical countermeasures, such as caffeine, naps, and melatonin (for its sleep-promoting effect), along with education about sleep and circadian rhythms, are the components of most fatigue risk-management plans. We contend that these, while better than nothing, are not enough because they do not address the underlying cause of the problems, which is circadian misalignment. We explain how to reset (phase-shift) the circadian clock to partially align with the night-work, day-sleep schedule, and thus reduce circadian misalignment while preserving sleep and functioning on days off. This involves controlling light and dark using outdoor light exposure, sunglasses, sleep in the dark, and a little bright light during night work. We present a diagram of a sleep-and-light schedule to reduce circadian misalignment in permanent night work, or a rotation between evenings and nights, and give practical advice on how to implement this type of plan.

Night work is non-optimal for performance and recuperation because of a lack of circadian influence that fully promote a night orientation. Our study assessed, in an industrial setting, the effects of bright light exposure (BL) on sleepiness, sleep and melatonin, during night work and during the following readaptation to day work. In a crossover design, 18 workers at a truck production plant were exposed to either BL (2500 lx) during breaks or normal light during four consecutive weeks. Twenty minute breaks were initiated by 67% of the workers between 03:00 and 04:00 hours. Sleep/wake patterns were assessed through actigraphs and ratings were given in a sleep/wake diary. Saliva melatonin was measured at 2-h intervals before, during and after night shift weeks. A significant interaction demonstrated a reduction of sleepiness in the BL condition particularly on the first two nights at 04:00 and 06:00 hours. Day sleep in the BL condition was significantly lengthened. Bright light administration significantly suppressed melatonin levels during night work and most strongly at 02:00 hours. Daytime melatonin during the readaptation after night work remained unaffected. The present findings demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of photic stimulation in industrial settings to increase adaptation to night work.