Shift work has already been linked to reduced brain function, alcohol abuse, weight gain and cancer, and now you can add infertility to the list.
Because the same part of the mammalian brain which controls our circadian rhythms – the suprachiasmatic nucleus – also handles the menstrual cycle in females, scientists in Japan and the US decided to take a look to see if there was any link between the two.
What they found was messing with the natural light-dark cycle lowered fertility in older female mice, but had no effect on their younger sisters.
The good news however is that by reverting the light-dark cycle back to normal, reproductive function can be restored.
"In modern society, females are exposed to many challenging perturbations in the environment that might play a role in fertility difficulties – we now live with high light levels in the evening, and our sleep cycle is disrupted by shift work or crossing time zones," says study co-author Gene Block of the University of Los Angeles.
"The ability to rescue reproductive function by altering the light schedule in a rodent model suggests that improvements in 'circadian hygiene' – for example, reductions in evening illumination, more regular meal timing, or avoiding rotating shiftwork or schedules that lead to irregular sleep – may all be important remedies for reproductive difficulty."
Dr Block says corresponding studies will need to be done on humans to confirm the same effect on shift-working women.
The research is published in today's issue of journal Cell Reports.
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