Context

As a result of the rapidly evolving 24-h society, about 15–30% of the workforce works outside normal business hours, with about half of them working night shifts. Any shift worker knows that night work compromises cognitive capacity and challenges the physiological need for sleep and recuperation. It is not surprising therefore that night shift work relates to a variety of health problems, including sleep disturbances, gastro-intestinal disorders, cancer and a number of metabolic disorders such as obesity, the metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.1 However, many previous studies have not fully captured the relationship between these health problems and shift work exposure. …