How many hours of sleep is good for a night shift person?
Hi Gunda,A night shift worker needs exactly as much sleep as everyone else, between 7 and 9 hours per night, depending on your personal physiology (I need at least 8, but others need less). The important thing is to carefully regulate your light exposure throughout the day. Humans evolved to be diurnal animals (awake during the day), and many of our bodily processes depend on the natural cycles of light and dark. In particular, our endocrine (hormonal) systems are triggered to produce serotonin and cortisol during the day and melatonin at night. Numerous studies of shift workers shows the health risks of inverting your light exposure cycles, even for those getting 8 hours of sleep per night. Hormones like melatonin not only regulate sleep, but also our immune system and metabolism. Studies show that shift workers are around 50% more likely to suffer from obesity, diabetes, and certain types of cancer (breast cancer being the most well-researched case).The (partial) solution to this is to carefully regulate your exposure to light before bedtime. Several studies show that wearing blue blocking glasses during shift work can normalize melatonin production, leading to better sleep and (theoretically) helping to avoid some of the aforementioned health problems associated with shift work. These glasses can be found here: LowBlueLights.com and here: Blue blocking Glasses for Shift Work.You also need to get blackout curtains for your bedroom. Your body needs complete darkness to continue to produce melatonin throughout your sleep cycle. Again, this isn't just about sleep, melatonin deficiencies can have enormous negative impacts on your health. Any sufficiently dark blackout curtains should work. Here are the ones I use: Blackout Curtains.So make sure to get plenty of simulated darkness (with blue blocking glasses) and real darkness (with blackout curtains) throughout the night!Good luck!
Is working night shifts bad for your health?
I work the night shift, well half of my time at work is doing a 12 hour night shift from 6pm until 6am, this is on a computer. I actually prefer them but I am a night owl and can find the peace that I enjoy only at night.However I can tell my body doesn't like it, it is less social as the only people I get a chance to talk to are the people that I work with who sometimes are boring and don't talk, after a while this has a pretty depressing effect from a lack of social interaction.There is the problem aswell that I usually fall asleep around about 8am and wake up at about 3pm, which during the winter months you will know means that I get a peak of about 45 minutes sunlight if I go outside, that's 45 minutes a day at most and chances are I will not get this unless I wake straight up and head straight outside.When I finish at 6am I go back to my room and wait for an hour to have breakfast at 7, I go to sleep at wake up at 3/4 pm where I will wait for 15 minutes and have lunch I will shower and change watch a bit of TV and walk to work (which is at most a 4 minute walk) I start at 6pm and can go straight for dinner which I do. Then I might have a snack at about 2am to help tie me over until breakfast before having a 4 minute walk back to my room to repeat the process.So what can you learn from this I miss having a social life for 1 week a month, I struggle to talk to my girl friend as we only get a couple of hours worth of messages a day. I don't see any friends or family in this time and rarely get a conversation with anyone worth talking to.I get no sunlight which is vital for the human bodies emotional and physical well being. I love the stars but you need the sun and its warmth to make you feel alive.My diet is awful as I eat before I sleep, I eat food in the middle of the night, I drink coffee to keep me awake at night and then ontop of all of that I don't get to do much fitness, many gyms are closed its dark and not as safe to run in the middle of the night.It's suprising how much a week of night shifts can change your mind and body but it does.
How can I stay healthy with a night shift job?
Sleep before you come to work. Minimum of 6 hours un-interrupted sleep if necessary. Make it a point to wake-up 2 hours before your shift begins ( Assuming it takes 30 minutes to drive from home to work)Don’t go to bed immediately after you finish your shift. Do some basic exercises to compensate the calories that you have not burned yet.Do not hit the bed immediately after you have your Food. Take sometime to read a book or do anything that interests you..... like painting, tailoring, writing diary etc.Do not have SEX after you finish your shift or before you go to work.While you are at work take a 10 min brake every 90 minutes, instead of taking a long break after every 4 or 3 hours.If you are in your wet days.... make sure that you take in a lot of fluids... may be fruit juices etc.. avoid carbonated drinks or energy drinks and have lots of waterThe above measures will give u good sleep at home and aid you to avoid sleeping while at work !!!Try bringing your own food, a diet rich in proteinMaintain your biological clock,i.e. eat your meals at a fixed time.Eat small but frequent meals.Lets go to the beauty part :-Keep smiling always and laugh a lot ( not to the extent where your mates sign you off as a nuisance)Consume fresh fruits and edible vegetables like carrot, radish, etc. Adding greens to your daily diet will keep your skin glowing.The best fact about night shifts is that .. you don have the sun affecting your skin.On the contrary, there is the possibility of lack of sun, thus depriving the necessary vitamins for the epidermal cells. Make it a pint to get exposed to sun for a few minutes before you go to bed.Use a mild astringent to wash off your face once you get back home after work. Curd / yogurt can be applied on the face and neck for about 30 minutes before going to bed. Remember to wash the curd off.. or your bed will be in a mess :)Good Luck
Coping with night shift work-?
I've spent most of my adult life on night shift. It's even more dificult when you have a family involved. Thats where I am at right now. (8pm-9am Thursday-Saturday) Sleep is an excellent start especially if your job doesnt entail much of anything. If you have a job that your actually physically doing something, staying awake isnt hard. But if you have a job like mine, overnight at a youth placement, its kinda boring. Between surfing the internet, watching TV, and the ocasional hall check, you can see where you might take a nap. Accidentally of course. It can also be harder to maintain healthy eating habbits as well. But I eat just before coming to work and again no later than 1 am. That way it is easer to fall back into normal eating habits the rest of the week. Unless you dont have weight issues of course.
Do you like working the night shift?
I like that i work four ten-hour shifts, and i agree with the whole walmart thing, where i go late because i'm up and there is no one there. my fiance and i worked the same shift and had days off together, so that was good. but now he works a new job that is "normal people" hours with weekends off, so i never see him bc my days off are m-t-w. i work 730pm to 6am, so it's hard doing things with family and friends during the day unless i sleep at night on my days off. working this shift is also good for me since i go to college, too, and can schedule my classes for early morning, and go pretty much right after work. it's tough, but it works.
I'm working my first night shift/graveyard shift?
I depends on how long you will have been awake before you go into work, really. If you are due to work at 11pm, and you have been awake since 7am then you will find it nearly impossible to stay awake during your shift. Depending on your job, that might be pretty dangerous. And it would be even more dangerous driving home after you get off work, as by then you'd be seriously sleep deprived. I used to work the graveyard shift, and would sleep in the later afternoon/early evening. It was rather reverse of the normal way of things, but it let me do things during the morning I needed to get done and still have sleep before going to work. I knew people who went right home after work and went to sleep, and those who did like me- and I think those of us sleeping before work did a lot better. Then again, I work in hospitals, and the last thing person you want messing with your IV or medications is a sleep deprived nurse. But if you are managing a hotel, that's a different story. At least nobody can really be hurt if you nod off. Use your judgement here, just don't try going 24 hours without sleep.
Ok to leave dog alone while working night shift?
In about a week I will be moving into my own apartment with my 8 month old dog. She is crate trained and house broken. I will be living by myself. I work night shift (11pm-7am). At my parents house she was rarely alone. She was kept downstairs in the crate at night while I was working, and was alone downstairs during the day sometimes. I plan on taking her out before I go to work and then again as soon as I get home. Depending on how my night went (I work in an Emergency Room and its unpredictably how busy we will be) I would ideally like to take her to the dog park so she can get a good run in after I get out of work. I only work 3 or 4 nights a week and would occasionally being doing 12 hr shifts. (this is rare but I do get asked occasionally) would this be okay? I feel bad leaving her alone at all but I know it is inevitable. While I am at work I would leave her in the kitchen with food/water instead of locking her in the crate all night.
Night shifts! making me feel sick anybody else have this?
i used to work night shifts and they made me feel ill. some people love working nights and some people hate them. i hate them. my stomach used to play up and i felt worn out. it is understandable that you get irritable as your body clock is all upset. the 2 days you get off are not enough for you to get back to a normal sleeping pattern. and if you do, you are back to working nights again. you could try taking Pro Plus when you're at work, you can get them in supermarkets and pharmacies. they help to keep you alert. but unfortunately, until you have worked like this for a long time you are going to continue feeling exhausted. unless you can get more time off in between night shifts, there is nothing much you can do sorry.