Abstract
Particular working conditions and/or organization of working time may cause important sleep disturbances that have been proposed to be predictive of cognitive decline. In this regard, circadian rhythm misalignment induced by exposure to night work or long working hours would be responsible for cognitive impairment. Nevertheless, evidence supporting this correlation is limited and several issues still need to be elucidated. In this regard, we conducted a systematic review to evaluate the association between shift/night work and cognitive impairment and address its main determinants. Information provided by the reviewed studies suggested that night work might have serious immediate negative effects especially on cognitive domains related to attention, memory and response inhibition. Furthermore, cognitive performance would progressively worsen over consecutive night shifts or following exposure to very long work shifts. Otherwise, conflicting results emerged regarding the possible etiological role that night work chronic exposure would have on cognitive impairment. Therefore, circadian rhythm desynchronization, lack of sleep and fatigue resulting from night work may negatively impact worker’s cognitive efficiency. However, in light of the considerable methodological variability of the reviewed studies, we proposed to develop a standardized research and evaluation strategy in order to obtain a better and comprehensive understanding of this topic.
Highlights
The term cognition refers to the internal mental processes that underlie how people perceive, remember, speak, think, make decisions, and solve problems [1]
The findings of this review demonstrated that shift work has serious immediate negative effects on cognitive functions, especially regarding the cognitive domains related to attention, memory and response inhibition (Table 2)
It is well-recognized that increasing age is the most important risk factor for cognitive detriment but, it is widely accepted that, besides this unchangeable risk factor, this condition can be influenced by other modifiable risk factors such as medical conditions and lifestyle habits
Summary
The term cognition refers to the internal mental processes that underlie how people perceive, remember, speak, think, make decisions, and solve problems [1]. The adoption of different and specific behaviors or actions in response to an external stimulus is regulated by several cognitive functions ( called domains) which are often activated simultaneously [2]. In this regard, it should be noted that, several authors have tried to provide classifications of cognitive functions, a full consensus about their categorization is still lacking [3,4]. It is evident that correct functioning of these mental processes is absolutely essential in order to ensure a normal social life that guarantees the possibility of interacting appropriately with other people and the surrounding environment [6]. In order to be carried out in complete safety conditions, they require
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