Chronobiology international
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effects of night shift on the cognitive load of physicians and urinary steroid hormone profiles - a randomized crossover trial.
Mental and physical stress is common in physicians during night shifts. Neurocognitive effects of sleep deprivation as well as alterations in hormonal and metabolic parameters have previously been described. The aim of this crossover study was to evaluate the effects of night-shift work with partial sleep deprivation on steroid hormone excretion and possible associations with mood, sleep characteristics and cognitive functions in physicians. ⋯ A considerable stimulation of the adrenocortical axis could not be affirmed. In general, dehydroepiandrosteron (DHEA) was negatively associated with the sense of recreation after sleep and with the time of reaction and positively correlated with correctly identified items in the FVW test. These results, on the one hand, are in line with previous findings indicating that stress and sleep deprivation suppress gonadal steroids, but, on the other hand, do not imply significant adrenocortical-axis stimulation (e.g. an increase of cortisol) during the day-night shift.