Acute Effect of Night Shift Work on Endothelial Function with and without Naps: A Scoping Review

We examined the breadth and depth of the current evidence investigating napping/sleeping during night shift work and its impact on non-invasive measures of endothelial function. We used a scoping review study design and searched five databases: Ovid Medline, EMBASE, Ovid APA PsycInfo, Web of Science Core Collection, and EBSCO CINAHL. We limited our search to English language and publications from January 1980 to September 2022. Our reporting adhered to the PRISMA-ScR guidance for scoping reviews. Our search strategy yielded 1949 records (titles and abstracts) after deduplication, of which 36 were retained for full-text review. Five articles were retained, describing three observational and two experimental research studies with a total sample of 110 individuals, which examined the non-invasive indicators of endothelial function in relation to the exposure to night shift work. While there is some evidence of an effect of night shift work on the non-invasive indicators of endothelial function, this evidence is incomplete, limited to a small samples of shift workers, and is mostly restricted to one measurement technique for assessing endothelial function with diverse protocols. In addition, there is no identifiable research investigating the potential benefits of napping during night shift work on non-invasive measures of endothelial function.