10 sleep tips for shift workers
Studies show that sleep deprivation can lead to serious consequences for shift workers, including firefighters, police officers and medical workers. Here's a plan to help your body adjust to irregular work hours
Shift work twirls the dials on your body’s biological clock until it can’t tell when it should wake you up and when it should let you sleep. And although there’s no single magic plan that’s right for everyone, there is agreement among sleep researchers that the following strategies will help you get a good night’s sleep. Here’s how to get started.
1. Get your partner on board
Shift work is tough on the entire family. Make sure your partner knows how it will affect him—increased parental responsibilities and household tasks, less time with you—before you sign on for night or rotating work.
2. Give your body a three-day warning
If you’re headed toward a major change in work schedule, begin to alter your sleep time three days in advance.
Let’s say your usual shift is 5:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. and you’re moving to an 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. schedule. If you usually sleep from 3:00 to 11:00 a.m., postpone your bedtime to 5:00 a.m. and sleep until 1:00 p.m. on the first day of the transition.
On day 2 postpone your bedtime to 7:00 a.m. and sleep until 3:00 p.m.
On day 3 postpone bedtime to 8:00 a.m. and sleep until 4:00 p.m.
On day 4 you’ll begin the new 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift. That day sleep from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.—and on every day thereafter.
3. Maintain a schedule
Keep the same sleep/wake schedule on your at-home days as on your workdays, says sleep specialist Kar-Ming Lo, M.D. It will help your body understand when you need to be alert and when you need to sleep.
4. Work clockwise
If you work rotating shifts, ask your manager to schedule succeeding shifts so that a new shift starts later than the last one, recommends the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. If you’ve just finished a 3:00 to 11:00 p.m. shift, for example, you’ll be more alert and sleep better if the next shift you work is 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.
5. Get outdoors
Once you wake up, get outside. Take a walk and sit in the sun. The sun will cue your biological clock that it’s time to be alert.
6. Pass up opportunities
Shift work stresses the body big-time. It puts your health at risk and denies you time with your family. Even if you need extra money, think twice about accepting an opportunity to work overtime or extra hours or skip vacations. The price may be higher than the added income.
7. Get a pickup
Two-thirds of shift workers report driving drowsy after a shift—and drowsy driving leads to 400 deaths and 2,100 serious injuries in Canada every year. Take the bus, hire a cab, have someone better rested than you are pick you up after your shift and take you home.
8. Make sleep a family effort
Discuss your sleep needs with kids, says Dr. Lo. Tell the kids that “Mom’s working hard and she works nights.” Then ask that they not go into your room unless it’s an emergency. And be sure to specify precisely what is—and what is not—an emergency.
9. Stick to Perrier
If you feel like a nightcap—morningcap?—make it water. Although alcohol may seem to relax you so you can get to sleep more quickly, what it actually does is disrupt your sleep later in the night. As a result, you get less sleep and sleep that’s less than refreshing.
10. Forget the quick fix
There isn’t any, although there are plenty of people around who will sell you one. One example: Sales of the herb valerian, which has historically been used to aid sleep, have reached more than a million dollars a year. Yet a review of 37 sleep studies reveals that it doesn’t do a thing.
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Sleep to Be Sexy, Smart and Slim; Reader's Digest
Most of your info is useless. 4 day turn around! Who working shift has that schedule? You completely forgot the 12 hr shiftworker. The best way to handle shift is to sleep every chance you get, take cat naps on your breaks at work (day or night), eat well, enjoy your days off and save for retirement.
Having your family understand your needs is important - keep kids out of the bedroom period. Block all light out of your bedroom when sleeping, wear earplugs, keep your room cool and run a fan on low to move air around and provide background white noise.
For women - let you partner pick up the slack when you are working. Making the meals, looking after the kids, laundry etc. Also remember that sometimes Monday and Tuesday are your Saturday - Sunday and relax one of those days. Most 12 hr shift workers work more than 40 hrs a week and do a physical job so will need extra rest.
I was a shift worker in a position that required my presence on the job on stand-by in case of an equipment failure which would require immediate response. Some shifts were trouble free and didn't require me to respond but instead I did repair work on equipment that was used as spares.
I worked a three shift schedule. One week was 8:00Am to 4Pm. Monday to Saturday.
The second shift began the following Monday night at 12:00 PM (actually Tuesday morning) to 8:00Am. Monday through Saturday.
The third shift began the following Monday 4:00 Pm. to 12Pm.
It then repeated.
The only difficult transition was the first !2:00 Pm. To 8Am. shift.
To get adjusted, I made absolutely certain I did not doze off on the first shift. This was difficult but I did whatever was necessary to stay awake. Some nights were so busy that it was easy to stay awake. Other nights, I had to fight to say awake.
After the first shift I had no problems sleeping once I returned home after the shift.
From then on I did not have any problem at work staying awake. I could even read quietly sitting at a desk.
That is how I adjusted and it worked well for me.
Very good info- and almost totally useless for many if not most shift workers. Many are fixed to schedules that they cannot change except by unanimous consent by the entire shift- good luck getting that online. As for the transportation issue, many shift workers are in areas where public transport is almost non-existant especially at the hours many go to or leave work. Employee parking is often limited to boot, so leaving your car in the lot overnight (or day) is not that practical and as for taxis, if you are being paid at the lower end of the scale, depending on where you work a cab ride may end up costing you half your post-tax shift pay.
Much of this advice may as well be summed up as "Don't worry, be happy" for many stuck doing shift work.
What about Melatonin?
I used to work for a company that had us working the worst shifts in history. 12 hour shifts, 2-on 2-off 3-on, every other weekend off. Starting on Monday you would come in for 0800 to 2000, and the same the following day. Off for 2 days, come in Friday for 2000 to 0800 and the same for Saturday and Sunday. Off for 2 days and then in on Wednesday for 0800 to 2000, repeat the next day. Everytime we started a new rotation we would be going from days to nights. We basically had one day to try and adjust our sleep for the next rotation, which did not work too well. People constantly calling in sick, falling asleep behind the wheel.. oh yeah, our job involved being on the road for 12 hours.
I also found that by turning a fan on in the bedroom, not directed at you helps. White noise seems to lull you to sleep and drowns out other noises that may be going on inside or outside of your house. This was a hint to help me when I worked 12 hour shifts at IPSCO from the guys that had worked there for years. Thanks to the men who share their way of coping with shift work!