Sleep All Day, Work All Night - The Demands Of Shift Work

It can be difficult to work the night shift. Suddenly your regular sleep schedule is drastically uprooted and you have to readjust everything from your social calendar to your eating habits. The problem that most people find most irritating, however, is having to sleep during the day, a period when our bodies naturally want to be awake.

While humans are usually programmed to sleep during the dark of night and wake up and be alert while it is light outside, there are plenty of ways to trick your body into giving you a good day's sleep! It all has to do with consistency.

Try to set your schedule so that you wake up and go to sleep at the same time each day. Even if that means you are sleeping from noon until six pm, a regular sleep schedule will help your body get to sleep faster once it has learned the habit. The trick to this is to not change during the weekends, however tempting it may be. If you sleep at a different hours during the weekends, it can confuse your body and you might find it difficult to get back to normal on Monday.

Keeping your room dark can also help. Depending on how bright the light is that comes in through the windows, you may want to invest in a heavy pull-down blind to block out the daylight and trick yourself into thinking it's night.

Some night shift workers find that it is helpful to take a nap during their break, if their sleep was disturbed during the day. This may or may not work for you. But it is a fact of life that if you sleep during daylight hours, you are more likely to be disturbed. This is particularly true if you don't live alone.

Let everyone in the house know that you need to sleep for at least a few hours during the day. If you have children, consider sending them to day care for half the day so you can get some well-earned sleep. Other distractions, like dogs or pets, should be kept in the yard or in a room far from where you are sleeping to minimize disturbances. Wearing earplugs might help as well.

Avoid using caffeine or similar stimulants to keep yourself awake. While you might benefit short term, in the long run you will lose sleep and end up far more tired than if you had just taken a nap.

Shift work can be demanding, but for many, it is the best or only way to earn a living. With a little planning, you will be able to get the sleep you need while working the night away.