Just when most of us are relaxing and getting ready for bed, Julie Hand is getting to work.

Hand is a registered nurse at St. Charles Bend's Family Birthing Center, working in the labor and delivery rooms. Her shift begins at

7 p.m. and ends at 7:30 a.m.

She said her work schedule affects her life in a number of ways. Hand is often sleep deprived and doesn't feel she eats as well as she would like. “You go home and you can't even keep your eyes open,” she said. “It's like sleep rules you.”

Now, researchers at St. Charles Health System and Oregon Health & Science University are conducting a study to find out if Hand and others with disrupted sleep could be harming their health. Hand is a participant in a year long study that began last month on the effects of sleep deprivation on several key markers of health, including obesity, nutritional choices and cognitive functioning.

The researchers are looking at whether people who sleep less, or sleep poorly, are more likely to suffer from attention and memory lapses, and whether they also might have dietary habits that can lead to weight gain.

They recruited more than 200 employees of the health system, Central Oregon's largest employer, to participate in the study.

“There's some scientific evidence that sleep and sleep patterns, and particularly sleep deprivation, changes how people eat and how hungry they are. It's directly related to being overweight,” said Jackilen Shannon, an associate professor at OHSU and the principal investigator of the study. “It's also been related to poor dietary patterns. So we were particularly interested in those