The Guardian reports that researchers have found working night shifts can impair the body’s natural rhythms so significantly that the brain and digestive system end up completely out of sync with each other.

Scientists revealed that working three night shifts in a row did not affect the body’s master clock in the brain, but it did impair the gut function, setting the natural cycle back by 12 hours.

The data could assist scientists understand more about the harm that night shift work can cause, according to Debra Skene, the first author on the study and professor of neuroendocrinology at the University of Surrey.

Full details here