The number of hours worked during the week, can have a significant impact on human health. Many of us knew, what processing do not add to our life. At the same time, a shorter working week can extend life in a number of mechanisms.
Work more than 40 hours per week is associated with a whole range of bad outcomes for health, said in comments to CNN , Seixas Azizi (Azizi Seixas), associate Professor at new York University, specializing in the study of stress. Anticipating the review of the research on the benefits of reducing working hours, he added:
This is due to issues of mental and physical health, and, what is very rarely say, relationships with loved ones.
Each of these three health issues mental, physical, and personal relationships may play a role in forecast life expectancy. Driven by four groups of factors, of which a shorter working week can extend life, according to the experts CNN.
The reduction in stress levels
A long work week builds stress, which can badly affect mental health. A study published in 2011 in Psychological Medicine, showed that 55-hour working week leads to symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorders.
The risk of depressive symptoms increased 1.66 times, and disturbing 1.74 times among people working 55 hours a week, compared with working 35-40 hours.
Work more than 48 hours a week carries a risk of drinking alcohol in dangerous amounts, according to a review published inthe British Medical Journal in 2015. This conclusion was made after analysis of data from 63 studies.
In the end, if you work all day you have no chance to think about personal problems, until you go to bed. This is one of the worst things a person can do with her sleep, said CNN Christian Benedict (Christian Benedict), a researcher of stress from Uppsala University (Uppsala University).
More sleep
During sleep, there are biological processes that allow the body to work normally the next day. Also there is evidence that sleep enhances processes associated with creativity and decision-making, says Benedict.
Car accident, accidents at work and occupational errors occur more often when we are tired. Of course, fatigue is bad for productivity. Long working hours and lack of sleep impair memory, reduce the ability to perceive new information, alertness and concentration, adds Seixas.
Sleep is a major factor that can improve the process of scrubbing the cells and proteins that are associated with Alzheimer’s and dementia he said.
Sleep is important to maintain important processes of homeostasis in the body. This means that your heart, liver and other organs can’t work on absolute power during the day. Requires a period when they are recovering, and sleep is an important factor for this, – develops thought Seixas.
If you regularly sleep less than the recommended hours, increases the risk of premature death. In 2007 in the journalSleep , a study was published based on the study data 10308 civil servants. Those who slept 5-7 hours a night are twice as likely to die sooner, particularly from heart disease.
Seixas Azizi added that the increased risk of cardiovascular disease also occurs if a long work week.
Heart health should improve
Men who work more than 50 hours a week or more 10 hours per day, the risk of disease coronary heart disease is 40% higher. Reported a review of 12 studies published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 2012.
Due to the lengthening of the working day people have less time to sleep. We need about seven hours to experience all the beneficial actions of sleep. With shorter sleep increases the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension, says Seixas. He added that the possible increased risk of cardiovascular and cardio-metabolic conditions as well as problems with the musculoskeletal system.
In another study it was shown that women who worked an average of 60 hours a week for 32 years, were at high risk of diabetes, cancer, arthritis and heart disease. In 2016, reported the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
The working week at 60 hours over 30 or more years is associated with tripling in the risk of chronic disease including leading causes of death.
Spending time with loved ones
Working less, you can spend more time with the family, and find more time La leisure, exercise, meeting friends and so on, says Benedict. Time spent with loved ones can help combat loneliness, which as established scholars, and promotes life extension.
A study published in the journal of the American medical Association (AMA) in 2012, showed that for people over 60 years, loneliness is a predictor of functional disorders and early death.
According to Christian Benedict, the reduction of the working week can be offset by the fact that it is in the result, the work becomes more intense.
The work is not only a source of income, it also gives non-monetary sources of satisfaction: status and acknowledgement, he said.
Ukrainian Andrei