How To Work Night Shift (And Stay Healthy)
Do you need to work nights? This article will talk about how to work night shift and stay healthy. It may be more challenging to keep healthy when a person works at night. However, it is still possible. Read on to find out how exercise can contribute to better health. After reading the article, visit bestellipticalcrosstrainer.com.au to find good-quality exercise equipment.
Working Night Shifts
What happens to the body when a person works night shifts? One of the most common side-effects of working the night shift is a disrupted circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythm refers to the internal body clock that regulates when you body feels sleepy.
Working at night can take its toll on a person’s body; it can take up to 48 hours for a person to readjust to normal waking hours. The adjustment time may feel similar to that of jetlag. The circadian rhythm of the person may be disrupted until they get used to sleeping at night again. However, it gets more complicated if the person has to work night shifts for an extended period.
Staying Healthy
A person who works at night have to exert more effort to stay healthy. Here are some tips to help night shift workers stay healthy.
Avoid Alcohol Right Before Bed
Although alcohol can make a person feel sleepy, this effect may wear off after a few hours. Even if the person had already fallen asleep, they may still stand to experience disrupted sleep if they use alcohol to induce their sleep.
Make The Room Conducive For Sleep
A person’s circadian rhythm can become affected if the body is not well-adjusted for sleep in the daytime. One way to get your circadian rhythm used to sleeping in the night is to replicate night sleeping conditions when it us time to go to bed. Using heavy drapes or curtains that when pulled shut will make the room dark will help your body think that it is nighttime. Also, closing the windows to reduce daytime traffic noises will help replicate night sleeping conditions. Adding the use of an electric fan or air conditioning system to make the air in the room cooler will help you fall asleep more quickly.
Relax An Hour Before Sleeping
It is important to wind down before going to sleep. This is also important even if people have a normal night sleep schedule, they will still be able to benefit from better sleeping patterns if they relax and wind down at least one hour before going to sleep.
Finish Any Exercise At Least One Hour Before Bed
It is crucial to finish doing any type of exercise or work out at least an hour before bed. This relates to relaxing and winding down before going to sleep. The rationale behind this is to allow your body to relax and get rid of any adrenaline that was produced because of the exercise.
Eat A Healthy Diet
Eating a well-balanced diet will help people who are working at night stay healthy. They key to staying healthy while working night shifts is to not only eat the needed fruits, vegetables and protein but to make sure to have your meals on a schedule. Eating your meals using a schedule will help regulate your circadian rhythm and help your body cope with sleeping at night. It will help your sleep schedule if other aspects of your life followed the same schedule as well.
Avoid Stress
It is important to avoid any triggers for the stress. When a person is stressed out, it can affect sleep patterns as well as get in the way of how a person’s body responds to exercise and other healthy activities.
Engage In Fitness Activities
While it is important to stop doing exercise an hour before sleep, staying healthy while working night shifts (or no matter what your shift is) entails getting enough physical activities to stay healthy. Keep moving, especially if the night shift work is sedentary. A spin bike at your living room is a great way of keeping fit. Get the best deals for spin bikes here.
Staying Awake During The Night Shift
One of the most challenging parts of being on the night shift is staying awake. This is especially true for people who are first-timers to working at night. Since the body’s natural circadian rhythm dictates that we should be sleeping during the night, the body will naturally have the urge to sleep or lay down at night.
Most people use coffee, tea or other caffeinated products to help them stay awake for their shift at night. However, this is not a healthy option because it can lead to disrupted sleep during the day. The effects of caffeine in the body can last for hours after the product is consumed. This means that the effects of drinking coffee or other caffeinated beverages might still be present when the time comes for the person to go sleep already.
The person should opt for other beverages to have during their “coffee” break. Most companies allocate two 15-minute breaks and one hour-long break for a meal. Instead of coffee or tea, it will do the person well to drink fruit juices or water. Another unhealthy habit people develop is the habit of smoking. Many have the idea that the 15-minute breaks are too short to have anything to eat, so they start smoking. A smoking habit may also develop because of peer pressure, if other co-workers are doing it, they may feel the need to join in.
Get Your Daily Dose Of Vitamins
Keeping healthy while working on the night shift will require you to take vitamins to ensure that your body is getting the recommended nutrition it needs to stay healthy and keep any infections at bay.
Bad habits like the ones mentioned above should be avoided, no matter what time of the day one has to work. People who work on the night shift have to exert much more effort because it is more challenging to keep healthy with a disrupted circadian rhythm.
Keeping Fit While On The Night Shift
As mentioned early on in this article, it may be difficult, but it is possible. Making sure that you get enough sleep, eat the right food and keep physically active will keep your health from deteriorating.
If you have been on the night shift and think that you are unable to sleep well, eat right or cope with the demands that your shift has on your body, it is a good idea to approach your doctor. Your doctor will be able to give your concrete advice as to how you can keep fit and stay healthy even if you are on the night shift. Your doctor will also be able to take into account any medical conditions that you might have that will get in the way ofr trying to maintain god health while working night shifts.
On the other hand, if you really are having a difficult time adjusting to the night shift, it may be a good idea to approach your boss about transferring you to the dayshift. There are really some people who find it very hard to cope with being on the night shift. In this case, it is better to try and ask your boss for a change in shift rather that compromising the quality of your health.
