Daytime Meals Can Reduce Health Risks Linked To Night Shift Work: Study

Health News – Study found that eating daytime meals can reduce higher glucose levels linked with nocturnal work life, while nighttime meals that most shift workers have can increase glucose levels.

In a new study, researchers at the National Institutes of Health assigned 19 healthy young participants to a 14-day controlled laboratory protocol after a preconditioning routine. The protocol involved simulated night work conditions with one of two meal schedules.

One group of participants ate during the nighttime to copy a meal schedule commonly observed among night workers and the other group ate during the daytime. The researchers evaluated the effects of these meal schedules on the participants’ internal circadian rhythms.

According to the study findings, having nighttime meals increases glucose levels which is a risk factor for diabetes while restricting meals to the daytime can effectively prevent this effect. The research result showed that for those participants who ate at night, their average glucose levels increased by 6.4% during the simulated night work. Additionally, those who ate daytime meals reported no significant increases.

“This study reinforces the notion that when you eat matters for determining health outcomes such as blood sugar levels, which are relevant for night workers as they typically eat at night while on shift,” said Sarah L. Chellappa, co-author of the study published in the journal Science Advances.

As per the researchers, circadian misalignment plays an active role in the way how nighttime eating affects glucose levels during simulated night work. They later suggested that daytime eating has many beneficial effects on glucose levels during simulated night work that may be driven by a better alignment between these central and peripheral “clocks.”

To Know More You May Refer To:

Chellappa, S. L., Qian, J., Vujovic, N., Morris, C. J., Nedeltcheva, A., Nguyen, H., Rahman, N., Heng, S. W., Kelly, L., Kerlin-Monteiro, K., Srivastav, S., Wang, W., Aeschbach, D., Czeisler, C. A., Shea, S. A., Adler, G. K., Garaulet, M., & Scheer, F. A. (2021). Daytime eating prevents internal circadian misalignment and glucose intolerance in night work. Science Advances, 7(49). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abg9910