Shift workers have lower thinking and memory scores, study shows.

Staff on shift schedules might experience diminished memory and thinking skills, according to a new study.

People who worked shifts for a decade or longer had lower scores on memory, thinking and processing tests than those who worked standard schedules, according to a study in November in Occupational & Environmental Medicine

Even workers who had toiled at shift work for less than a decade had lower scores. It takes about five years for the brain to bounce back to age-appropriate performance after shift work ends, the authors determined. Shift work has “potentially important safety consequences,” they wrote.