Working overtime reduces mental capacities

The mental capacities of people who work more than 55 hours per week are reduced. Overtime can also possibly increase your chance for getting dementia, think Finish researchers.

2214 British middle aged civil servants were followed for this research. Between 1997 and 2004 they made 5 mental tests 4 times. This showed that the more hours someone worked, the worse the results got especially for language and reasoning.

Why working overtime effects mental capacities the researchers of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health cannot say yet. But they did see that people who worked more hours suffered more from stress, sleeping problems and an unhealthy lifestyle. They also drank more alcohol.

It was shown before that working overtime is not good for your body, but now it is shown that it is also not good for your mind. If employers want to have well functioning employees, then it is important to find a good balance between work and free time according to the researchers.

The scientists can conceive that working overtime can even increase the chance of getting dementia, but this still needs to be researched further.

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