Sleep and Shift Work
Sleep and shift workers
Our shift workers are key workers, and the life blood of our Company. Establishing good sleeping patterns and eating habits can be a challenging. This is because our bodies have evolved to operate by being asleep during the night and awake during the daylight hours.
Adapting your sleep patterns for day shifts
Day shifts are often thought to be the easiest shift to work, many people find it difficult, especially when the day shift starts early. That is because the body naturally likes to be asleep at around 4am, which can be around the time you are getting up if your shift starts at 6am. So, when you are on ‘days’ make sure you get a full night’s sleep (on average 8 hours), even if that means going to bed a little earlier than you would like to.
Adapting your sleep patterns for night shifts
To maximise your energy and alertness throughout your night shift you need to arrive at work rested. This means you need to ‘reverse your day’. When you get home in the morning – that becomes your ‘evening’, so don’t go straight to bed. Time going to bed to provide the right amount of sleep (average 8 hours) so that you can wake up leaving enough time to have a good ‘breakfast’ before leaving for work – in the same way you would when working ‘days’.
Top Tips to improve sleep during the day for night shift workers:
Keep the room dark Use heavy curtains, black out blinds, or eye shades.
Adjust the temperature Cool temperatures improve sleep.
Disconnect telephones Especially in the bedroom, for other rooms turn the volume down and use an answer machine.
Ask your family to keep the noise down
Talk to your neighbours About your work pattern and ask them to try to avoid noisy activities during your sleep time whenever possible.
Try to use ear plugs If noise is a problem or play background music to mask the external noises.
Finally If you tend to sleep as soon as you get home off a night shift, or if your daytime sleep period was cut short, then an additional nap for up to 30 minutes just before work will help promote alertness and enhance your performance. Keep it short though, the longer you nap, the more likely you are to feel groggy afterwards.
