Researchers from the University of Hong Kong have found that people working in night shifts may damage their DNA and further predispose themselves to the risk of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurodegenerative diseases. The study was based on healthy 'on-call' doctors, which showed that doctors working overnight had lower expression of DNA repair genes and more DNA breaks than those who did not work overnight. Researchers analyzed blood samples from 49 healthy full-time doctors at different times.
After getting the results, one of the researchers said, "Although this work is very preliminary, it is clear from the results that even a single night of sleep deprivation can trigger events that may contribute to the development of chronic disease." It was observed that damaged DNA increased after only one night of sleep deprivation.
