Spending more time on Outlook than Instagram? Finishing a shift on time feel rarer than a sunny bank holiday? Here’s what goes on in your body and brain when the job takes over
01 Health check
If you’re clocking up more hours than Chris Whitty, join the club. Research has shown that UK employees worked £24bn worth of unpaid overtime last year.
‘Chronic overworking can have a direct and indirect impact on your health,’ says Alisha Damani, an NHS doctor and founder of The Medic Today, an organisation that helps medics avoid burnout. ‘The direct impact relates to acute physiological change, like rising cortisol; the indirect to the poor choices that long working hours can cause, like sleep loss.’ AKA, a two-for-one deal that isn’t worth your time.
02 Heart to heart
In news as welcome as an out-of-hours email, stress breeds stress. ‘Frequently working long hours can increase cortisol, which temporarily increases blood pressure by causing the heart to work harder and blood vessels to narrow,’ explains Gerald Carr-White, a cardiologist at London Bridge Hospital. ‘If stress levels remain high, this could damage the heart,’ he adds. Indeed, according to a report from the World Health Organization, 745,000 people die annually from ischaemic heart disease and stroke due to working long hours.
03 Dream role
Spare a thought for your REM. ‘Stress can reduce slow-wave sleep –a stage important for maintaining mental and physical health,’ says Samantha Briscoe, lead clinical physiologist at London Bridge Hospital. ‘It can also increase your likelihood of waking mid-sleep, while you might not get enough time to unwind after the working day.’ The consequences a
