The effects of nightwork on psychological changes during the menstrual cycle

This study investigated whether the temporal stress of working at night interferes with nurses' experience of different phases of the menstrual cycle Twenty‐four, rotatmg‐shift nurses recorded data on a hand‐held computer at the start and end of each day and every 2 hours during their shifts fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of advanced nursing 1995-05, Vol.21 (5), p.996-1005
Main Authors: Totterdell, Peter, Spelten, Evehen, Pokorski, Janusz
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Analysis of Variance
Biological and medical sciences
Circadian Rhythm
England
Factors
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Menstrual Cycle - psychology
Menstruation
Middle Aged
Night shifts
Nurses
Nursing
Nursing Staff, Hospital - psychology
Nursing Staff, Hospital - statistics & numerical data
Occupational psychology
Psychological aspects
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Wales
Work condition. Job performance. Stress
Work Schedule Tolerance - psychology
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Summary:This study investigated whether the temporal stress of working at night interferes with nurses' experience of different phases of the menstrual cycle Twenty‐four, rotatmg‐shift nurses recorded data on a hand‐held computer at the start and end of each day and every 2 hours during their shifts for a period of 28 days The measures included a sleep diary, self‐ratings of mood and symptoms, and two cognitive performance tasks Using a pooled time series analysis, it was found that some of the self‐report measures showed a significant interaction between type of shift worked and menstrual cycle phase For example, alertness was found to be lower towards the end of the night shift during the premenstrual phase compared to other phase and shift combinations However, some of the measures showed only main effects of cycle phase or were nonsignificant Retrospective measures from a larger sample showed an association between the number of nights worked per year and duration of premenstrual and menstrual problems, and seventy of premenstrual problems The results suggest that nightwork may alter some aspects of nurses' psychological experience of the menstrual cycle
ISSN:0309-2402
1365-2648
DOI:10.1046/j.1365-2648.1995.21050996.x