Shift work and night work
Get ideas on how to support night and shift workers at your organisation, discover the health impacts and injuries of this work, and connect to research.
Workplace support for shift and night workers
Find out how to support shift workers at your organisation. Read research, and get examples of promising workplace interventions that you can put into place.
The known health impacts of shift and night work
Read about the health impacts of night work and shift work, the accidents and injuries that are associated with these forms of work, and who is affected.
Reasons shift and night work can be harmful
Researchers are trying to establish why shift and night work would cause harm to workers. Read summaries of this research.
Defining shift work and night work
Shift work has been defined by the International Labour Organisation as “a method of organization of working time in which workers succeed one another at the workplace so that the establishment can operate longer than the hours of work of individual workers” and night work as “all work which is performed during a period of not less than seven consecutive hours, including the interval from midnight to five am”.
In Aotearoa New Zealand in 2018 it is estimated that there are over 300,000 people working night shifts and 976,000 people working evening shifts.
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Professor of Health and Safety
School of Health
References
- Cherrie, J. W., et al. (2018). "A review of the impact of shift-work on cancer: summary of the evidence for practitioners." Policy and Practice in Health and Safety 16(1): 145-151.
- Crawford, J. O., et al. (2018). "A review of the impact of shift work on occupational cancer: Part 2 - mechanistic and health and safety evidence." Policy and Practice in Health and Safety 16(1): 109-144.
- IARC Working Group. (2020). "Night Shift Work." IARC Monographs 124.
- Faraut, B., et al. (2017). "Napping: A public health issue. From epidemiological to laboratory studies." Sleep Medicine Reviews 35: 85-100.
- Garde, A. H., et al. (2020). "How to schedule night shift work in order to reduce health and safety risks." Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment & Health 46(6): 557-569.
- Larsen, A. D., et al. (2017). "Night work, long work weeks, and risk of accidental injuries. A register-based study." Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment & Health 43(6): 578-586.
- Leso, V., et al. (2021). "Impact of Shift Work and Long Working Hours on Worker Cognitive Functions: Current Evidence and Future Research Needs." International journal of environmental research and public health 18(12).
- Nielsen, H. B., et al. (2018). "Risk of injury after evening and night work-findings from the Danish Working Hour Database." Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment & Health 44(4): 385-393.
- Rivera, A. S., et al. (2020). "Shift work and long work hours and their association with chronic health conditions: A systematic review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses." PloS one 15(4).
- Smith, L., et al. (1994). "INCREASED INJURIES ON NIGHT-SHIFT." Lancet 344(8930): 1137-1139.
- Sun, M., et al. (2018). "Meta-analysis on shift work and risks of specific obesity types." Obesity Reviews 19(1): 28-40.
- Vedaa, O., et al. (2019). "Short rest between shifts (quick returns) and night work is associated with work-related accidents." International archives of occupational and environmental health 92(6): 829-835.