Night Shift Essay

Overnight shift work, although highly important, tends to result in a lack of sleep. The great importance of sleep on cognitive functioning, specifically memory, has been shown by several researchers. Payne, Stickgold, Swanberg, and Kensinger (2008) demonstrated that sleep aids memory retention, especially of negative memories. Overnight work can be more convenient for various reasons, but the work comes with a price. Consistent overnight shifts, even when regular sleep occurs during the day, can lead to a loss of memory capacity, especially at the end of the shift. However, Smith-Coggins et al. (2006) discovered that a nap at 3am increases the memory capacity of individuals at the end of the shift. I will evaluate how the research demonstrates whether memory is affected by overnight shifts and if napping can help increase functioning, because doing so will help evaluate how to improve cognitive functions at important overnight workplaces, such as the emergency room.

The Effects of Sleep on Memory

However, various researchers investigated specific types of memories that are more affected by sleep. Researchers have found that some memories are retained better than others; typically, people remember negative memories better than neutral or positive ones (Payne et al., 2008). This caused these researchers to evaluate if sleep helped more with the retention of memories of different emotional calibers, and the research indeed showed that sleep helps with the retention of negative memories more than with positive memories. I will return to this in my discussion of overnight shift workers and their memories because often jobs that require overnight shifts are medical in nature, and negative at