Working night shifts may deteriorate your quality of life by affecting your bladder, researchers have warned.

Night shift workers reported a significantly higher rate of overactive bladder, and a poorer quality of life when compared with day shift workers, suggests the study presented at the European Association of Urology Congress in Barcelona.

They also need to pee more, said researchers, including Cosimo De Nunzio of Sant Andrea Hospital, Rome.

For the study, the researchers surveyed 68 men and 68 women between March and October 2018. All were workers in the Italian National Health System, with 66 of the volunteers working night shifts, on average, 11 hours per night shift.

The 70 day workers worked an average of 9.1 hours per day.

Using the generally accepted Overactive Bladder Questionnaire, the team found that those on night shift reported an average total score of 31, as against a score of 19 for those working day shifts.

The team also found that night workers scored a significantly worse quality of life, with scores of 41 against 31 with day shift workers.