Working more than 52 hours a week may alter the structure of your brain, new research has found.
Being “overworked” could affect the part of the brain linked with problem-solving and memory, as well as impacting mental health, the researchers found.
The findings were published in the journal Occupational And Environmental Medicine and looked at the impact of overwork on specific regions in health workers who regularly clocked up more than 52 hours a week.
Some 110 workers were included in the final analysis – of these, 32 worked excessive hours and 78 worked standard hours.
Those working longer hours each were significantly younger, had spent less time in work and were more highly educated than those doing standard hours, the study said.
They used data including MRI scans to examine brain structure and found “overworked individuals exhibited significant changes in brain regions associated with executive function and emotional regulation”.
They also found planning and decision-making parts of the brain were affected.
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The researchers, including from Yonsei University in South Korea, said: “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.”
Ruth Wilkinson, head of policy and public affairs at the charity the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, said urgent action is needed to tackle “an epidemic of long working hours”.
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“A long hours culture can be experienced in what we’ve identified as the ‘small print’ of working life today,” she said.
“This captures those hidden or unspoken expectations placed on top of workers’ contracts.
“It includes always having to be available/on duty in this digital age, stripped of the right to disconnect from work outside of normal working hours.”
A YouGov survey by the institution found nearly a quarter of UK workers regularly work more than the legal maximum number of hours (48 hours a week), while more than half said they regularly check work emails and messages outside of normal hours.
