Working overtime can cause changes in brain structure

Many businesses want employees to always be available online and ready to respond after hours, leading to pressure to complete work even after hours - Photo: AI

Working too many hours a week, an increasingly common condition in modern society, is not only physically exhausting but can also cause profound changes in the brain, according to an international study published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine .

Scientists from Yonsei University (South Korea) analyzed data from a long-term health study, combining magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess the brain structure of 110 medical workers, including 32 who regularly worked 52 hours or more per week.

Results showed that the group working overtime had significant changes in brain regions related to executive function and emotional regulation , regions that play a key role in concentration, memory, decision making and social behavior.

In particular, the left middle frontal gyrus, an area in the frontal lobe that plays a role in short-term memory, attention, and language processing, increased in volume by 19% in the overworked group compared with the standard work group.

In addition, other regions involved in planning, decision making, emotional processing and social cognition also recorded unusual changes.

Overworked workers showed marked changes in brain regions responsible for cognitive and emotional regulation. The results provide initial neuroscientific evidence that sustained long work hours can lead to changes in brain structure that can negatively impact cognitive functions such as memory, attention and decision-making, as well as affect workers’ mental health.

The team of scientists called for further long-term studies to assess the long-term effects of overwork on brain structure and function, as well as the ability of the brain to recover when working hours are adjusted to a reasonable level.

At the same time, they emphasized that this discovery is a serious warning bell about occupational health issues in the context of a culture of "non-stop work" that is becoming increasingly popular and tacitly accepted in many industries.

"Pandemic" of overtime work

“Global analysis from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) shows that excessive working hours are on the rise and account for around a third of all work-related illnesses worldwide,” said Ruth Wilkinson , head of policy and public affairs at the International Organisation for Safety and Health at Work (IOSH).

Part of the reason comes from the implicit expectations in modern corporate culture, including wanting employees to always be available online, ready to respond after hours, or pressure to complete work after hours.

From the above findings, experts call on businesses to be more transparent in the way they organize work, and integrate psychological and social risk factors into occupational safety assessments.

“We need to act quickly to control the ‘overwork’ epidemic before it becomes a silent cause of serious problems for mental health, productivity and quality of life,” Ms Wilkinson stressed.

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MINH HAI

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/lam-viec-qua-gio-co-the-gay-bien-doi-cau-truc-nao-20250514125550512.htm