Checking your work email at home or taking a call from the boss at weekends could be damaging your health, experts have warned.

A study of 57,000 people found that more than half worked outside their normal hours - a trend driven by the ease of accessing work documents on smartphones and computer tablets.

The researchers found that those who worked in the evenings and at weekends were more likely to complain of insomnia, headaches, fatigue, anxiety and stomach problems.

Muscular problems and cardiovascular issues were also linked to working outside of normal hours, the German researchers found.

Checking your work email at home, or taking a call from your boss at the weekend could be damaging your health, experts have warned. German researchers argued recreational time completely free of work is essential to help the body recuperate. File picture

The scientists, whose work is published in the journal Chronobiology International, call for far stricter rules to stop work invading people’s home life.

They said technological advances have created an ‘always-on’ culture which is ramping up pressure for people to be constantly available to work.

And they argued that recreational time completely free of work is essential to help the body recuperate.

The authors, from the Society for Labour, Industrial and Organizational Psychological Research in Oldenburg, Germany, based their findings on two major surveys of workers across Europe.

They wrote: ‘Information and communication technologies, such as computers and smartphones... have the potential benefit and the potential inherent danger of making it possible for employees to be available any time and anywhere.

‘This changes not only our work organisation, but probably also our patterns of social participation and integration.’

They added: ‘Free time should be free time, otherwise it must be expected that it cannot fulfil functions of recovery and recuperation.’

Lead author Dr Anna Arlinghaus, a public health expert at the, said: ‘Our findings indicate that even a small amount of supplemental work beyond contractually agreed work hours can lead to health issues.

‘The correlation is very strong.’

Some large companies and even governments are beginning to raise concerns about the burden of mobile working.

Separate research, carried out by technology retailer Pixmania in 2012, found that access to a smartphone adds two hours to the working day.

The study found workers who checked their email at home were more prone to cardiovascular problems, headaches, anxiety, stomach problems and muscular complaints. File picture

More than 90 per cent of office workers have an email-enabled phone, with a third accessing them more than 20 times a day, the research found.

German car maker Daimler last month installed software on its 100,000 employees’ computers that automatically deletes emails if they are away on holiday.

Daimler spokesman Oliver Wihofszki said: ‘The idea behind it is to give people break and let them rest. Then they can come back to work with a fresh spirit.’

Managers at Deutsche Telekom agreed to stop sending emails to staff during evenings, weekends and holidays, while in 2011 Volkswagen announced company servers would stop routing emails to employees’ BlackBerrys in the evening.

France recently introduced rules which safeguard people working in the digital and consultancy sectors from work email outside office hours.

And the German government is looking at similar measures.

Dr Arlinghaus said: ‘Employers should start to look at how they can minimise their employees’ supplemental work.

‘It often needs to start at the top, with bosses taking the lead and attempting to change the culture at work.