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BBC Radio 4 presenter Sarah Montague, with input from Professor Russell Foster, investigates how working when most people are sleeping affects our bodies.

If the body clock is disrupted, Sarah discovers, our organs don't function properly and we can't control our metabolism. There's evidence to suggest that nightshift workers have a higher incidence of diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

Listen on BBC iPlayer

The assumption has always been that our bodies adapt to the nightshift. But now neuroscience is beginning to unravel the fundamental mechanism of sleep...and the extraordinary finding is that we don't adapt. - Russell Foster