Whether you have the power to determine your work schedule may have serious implications for your future health.

Decades of research have supported the need for adequate sleep and a regular sleep schedule that does not disrupt our body’s biorhythms. Researchers are now focusing on exploring the relationship between irregular work schedules and future health problems that may be related to this functional change in our body’s inherent rhythms.

Getting enough high-quality sleep is essential for a normal day’s function and physical and mental health. Sleep deprivation and poor sleep quality negatively affect neurocognitive processes such as memory, attention, and academic performance.

Conditions such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes have all been associated with both insufficient and poor-quality sleep. As a result, negative health effects, such as viral and incident cardiovascular diseases, lower cognitive functioning, and longer sleep duration, also show a link, but they have been less frequently investigated.

Many studies have shown that the circadian rhythm promotes wakefulness more during the biological day; therefore, forcing people to sleep during that time can lead to issues of falling and staying asleep, as well as reduced sleep duration. But how might this influence our future health disorders?

According to a study, that aggregated data from 2006, 2010, and 2014 (N = 4,108), nonstandard work patterns were associated with lower self-rated health and more days of poor physical and mental health. The causal study revealed a concern for work-to-family conflict related to nonstandard work schedules and health status. Of course, sleep plays a major role in all of this activity that is contrary to our body's normal functioning.

Sleep is absolutely necessary, but some people consider it a waste of time, or at least that's what they say publicly. How can it be a waste of time when your brain does its housekeeping and cleaning while you sleep?

Yes, there have been those who can survive and be extremely creative on little sleep, e.g., Leonardo da Vinci and Thomas Edison, two extremely creative people who demeaned sleep. Da Vinci indicated he existed only on 20–minute naps (microsleep) throughout the 24 hours of a day. Edison, who liked to say that he didn't sleep, didn't tell people that he took naps throughout the day and had cots in his research laboratories for that purpose.

Shift workers are at the highest risk for health and decreased life satisfaction in studies completed over the past decade. Due to the health consequences and schedule mismatch with most of society, shift workers report reduced subjective well-being and life satisfaction. One aspect of this dissatisfaction occurred when they live in an area that is easy to walk. Another found that having a car makes people more likely to participate in activities that boost their health and happiness. No research on the relationship between transportation and happiness has examined whether or not the transportation system plays a role in how shift work affects happiness.

Sleep and associated disorders remain a prime focus of present and future health considerations. All sorts of alternate work schedules, including early morning and late hours, include reduced sleep duration, a high frequency of estimated sleep disorders, and sleep disorder comorbidity. The findings suggest that working the night shift consistently is the most detrimental situation when it comes to sleep. The results of this study: About half of the night shift workers reported getting under 6 hours of sleep; 51% tested positive for one sleep disorder, with 26% testing positive for two or more.

Healthcare workers may be at high risk of disorders related to work schedule changes. Norwegian nurses often work what is known as a “rotating shift,” which means they may be on call in the morning, evening, or night at different times during the week. Researchers have found that this results in shorter sleep durations, and working at night is the leading source of chronic stress and exhaustion. Nurses working rotating shifts have observed more mental health issues than nurses working non-rotating hours. Additionally, there are links between shift work, anxiety, and depression.

Given any work situation, in adults, disrupting sleep can lead to a variety of short-term effects, such as heightened sensitivity to stress, physical pain, decreased quality of life, emotional discomfort, mood disorders, and impairments in cognition, memory, and performance. The long-term consequences pose even greater threats to health. Problems with blood sugar, cholesterol, heart disease, obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and colorectal cancer are some of the long-term effects of sleep deprivation in otherwise healthy people.

Our work schedules in our later lives, therefore, play a central role in future health. When comparing people whose jobs had more unpredictable schedules to those whose jobs were more consistent during the day, we find that the former slept less, had worse sleep quality, and reported more depressed symptoms at age 50. Those whose work schedules were more predictable in their twenties but more unpredictable in their thirties showed the most dramatic improvements. The magnitude of this effect was substantial and comparable to that of having a lower level of education than high school.

The researchers believe the long-term effects of work schedules on health, both good and bad, can add up, and different work habits lead to health disparities. Studies have also shown that cultural disparity can lead to inequity in health.

Blacks and people with a high school or lower education are particularly subject to working nonstandard schedules. On top of that, if non-Hispanic Black men with a high school diploma or less had volatile work patterns from 22 to 49 years old, they were more likely to report ill health at age 50. Men are more likely than women to have nonstandard schedules, except in healthcare jobs like nursing.

Recent research has underscored the involvement of nonstandard work hours, lack of sleep, and later life health implications.