Lifestyle behaviors, mental and physical health, and high tolerance to night work in rotating shift workers

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K12693
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Applied health science
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Togo Fumiharu 東京大学, 大学院教育学研究科(教育学部), 准教授 (90455486)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): Komatsu Taiki 日本大学, スポーツ科学部, 教授 (80436451) ; Kishi Akifumi 東京大学, 大学院教育学研究科, 助教 (70748946) ; Yoshizaki Takahiro 東洋大学, 食環境科学部, 講師 (50732830)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: ストレス / 身体活動 / 心身の健康 / 交代制勤務 / 栄養 / 疲労 / 睡眠

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated associations of the amount, quality, and timing of sleep, meal intake, and physical activity with circadian rhythm and subjective level of depressive symptoms in rotating shift workers. We found that sleep duration and timing and meal contents were associated with circadian rhythm or morningness-eveningness (i.e., the degree to which people prefer to be active in the morning or the evening) and depressive symptoms or positive mood. In addition, meal contents and sleep timing on days of night shifts were associated with changes in phase of circadian rhythm and changes in positive mood on day shifts before and after the night shifts. These results indicate the possibility that meal contents and sleep timing on night shifts may be one of the factors which can be used for preventing a phase delay in the circadian clock and depressive symptoms in rotating shift workers.

Free Research Field

教育生理学