The Relationship between Working Night Shifts and Depression among Nurses: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis may interest you – it explored the evidence between depression and night shift work among nurses.

This sample included >37k participants across 8 studies.

They noted “The outcome of this systematic review and meta-analysis showed a significant association between night shift work, the circadian and sleep disruption it causes, and the risk of depression in nurses”.

Shift work increased the total risk of negative mental health outcomes, like depression and anxiety, by 28%. Another meta-analysis linked night shifts to a 42% increase in risk of depression.

Other work highlighted that in nurses who changed from night work to day work reported a significant decrease in symptoms of anxiety and depression, from baseline over a 2 year period.

Depression was also found to be associated with sleep disorders, like insomnia. Nurses were at higher risk of developing some subtypes of insomnia.

Moreover, some nurses who worked night shifts were found to also have higher reported sexual dysfunction in conjunction to depression.

However, they argue that “this evidence is not strong enough to sustain a general medical recommendation against night shift work for workers with depressive conditions and that it would seem appropriate to address this question on an individual basis, with strong support from physicians and close attention to the negative psychosocial factors associated with night shift work”.

Or, more importantly in my opinion, stronger organisational and structural means to minimise negative outcomes from shift work and improve wellbeing and health more generally.

Further, they discuss that based on these findings, “circadian rhythm disruption and sleep deprivation should be considered as clinical risk factors for depression in nurses working night shifts. Circadian and sleep disruptions should be among the therapeutic targets in order to prevent and treat depression among nurses working night shifts and in the planning of occupational health interventions for nurses”.