Study Finds That Working Too Many Hours Might Actually Be Changing Your Brain Structure
Working overtime is becoming a health hazard.
Zoran Zeremski | Shutterstock Working long, demanding hours has become the norm in many career fields. Professionals have to work overtime to keep up with an always-connected and ever-changing world, and it can be difficult to maintain a healthy work-life balance. In addition, companies keep cutting staff, forcing most employed workers to do more than their fair share.
Beyond the toll that working overtime takes on our mental health, cognitive activity, and mood, new research suggests that chronic overwork may be changing the actual structure of our brains, and it's not for the better.
A new study found that working too much can lead to changes in brain structure.
A team of researchers in the Republic of Korea conducted a study to analyze the association between working long hours and brain health.
In their published paper, researchers wrote, "While the behavioral and psychological consequences of overwork have been well documented, little is known about its direct effects on brain structure. Prior research has suggested that chronic stress and insufficient recovery may alter brain morphology, but empirical neuroimaging evidence remains limited."
The study included 110 healthcare workers, with 32 reporting overworking each week (52 or more hours), while 78 worked normal hours. Upon analyzing the brain scans of the participants, the team found that the overtime workers had larger volumes of gray matter, and that "overworked individuals exhibited significant changes in brain regions associated with executive function and emotional regulation."
Increased gray matter in an adult brain is generally considered positive.
Gray matter is an essential tissue located in the brain and spinal cord. It mostly makes up the brain's outer layer, and it plays a crucial part in processing and transmitting information and controlling movement, memory, and emotion.
This tissue is made up of nerve cell bodies, nerve fibers, and dendrites that support the functions of the central nervous system. A decrease in gray matter can lead to cognitive decline, worsening motor function, and increased risk of dementia.
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Gray matter stops developing around age 20, but older adults can still maintain or increase gray matter volume through cognitive training and physical activity. Previous studies say that long-term mindfulness meditation practice can also induce structural changes in gray matter.
That certainly doesn't sound bad, right? As David Nield from ScienceAlert noted when reporting about the study, there are positive and negative implications to an increase in gray matter.
"The researchers don't draw any firm conclusions here about how brain health is being affected," Nield explained, "but it's something that demands further investigation."
It certainly sounds like the increase in gray matter that comes from exercising your brain by learning a new language or taking up a new hobby isn't exactly the same as working your brain to exhaustion by staring at a spreadsheet.
Those who work long hours are at risk of changes to their mental health.
Though an increase in gray matter sounds like a good thing, evidence suggests that overworking can be extremely detrimental to both mental and behavioral health. Jonny Gifford, principal research fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies in Brighton, England, who was not involved in the study, told CNN that the research “confirms some physiological reasons that working long hours affects our well-being.” He noted, “It’s a small study of 110 healthcare workers in Korea, but because it is based on robust neurological measures and concerns fundamental mechanisms (overwork and fatigue) that can affect anyone, the central findings are widely relevant.”
The researchers agreed, writing, "These findings suggest that long working hours may induce neuroadaptive changes, potentially impacting cognitive and emotional health."
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Although this particular study is novel, other research has shown that working too much is linked to issues with poor mental health and decreased brain function.
Research from Stanford showed that overworking can actually lead to a decrease in productivity levels. It was discovered that "productivity during 60-hour weeks would be less than two-thirds that of what it was when 40-hour weeks were worked." The decline in output affects both individual and team performance.
Another report from the National Library of Medicine found that employees who work 60 hours or more are 1.4 times more likely to be depressed and 1.66 times more likely to be mentally unwell. However, it suggests that "having hobbies in their daily lives might help to mitigate the adverse effects of long working hours on workers’ depression and mental well-being."
The researchers out of Korea noted, "The results underscore the importance of addressing overwork as an occupational health concern and highlight the need for workplace policies that mitigate excessive working hours." Which certainly sounds ominous, but thankfully, Joon Yul Choi, co-author of the study and an assistant professor at Yonsei University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, told CNN that they may be “at least in part, reversible” as long as you limit the overtime.
Sure, it's easier said than done, but when it comes right down to it, health should always come before a career. You only get one life, but you can always find a new job.
Kayla Asbach is a writer currently working on her bachelor's degree at the University of Central Florida. She covers relationships, psychology, self-help, pop culture, and human interest topics.
