Via practica 2/2025
Safety and health risks of night work
Increased risk of obesity, vascular and heart disease or sleep and mental disorders. Working in night production causes many problems for employees, which affect their health. Thousands of people go to work every night and the economic profit from an employee’s night work does not balance the health and social risks that this work brings. Slovakia ranks among the winners in the EU in the share of night work, when up to 11.2% of the total employment (workers) work at night. Several researches and studies are devoted to the negative impact of night work on the health and psyche of employees. Night work can cause chaos in the body and disruption of the organism at the molecular level. The biological clock forces a person to sleep at night and be active during the day. Working at night disrupts such a natural rhythm. It then affects hormones, body temperature, brain and mood. Simply, a person is not made to work at night. The general practitioner for adults (GP) plays an important role in the occupational health protection process and also prepares a medical opinion for night work.
Keywords: night work, working conditions, law, occupational safety and health, general practitioner for adults
