Getting a good night’s sleep: 5 strategies for shift workers
The impacts of shift work on sleep
One-third of working adults struggle with ongoing, chronic sleep difficulties—and the number is even higher among shift workers. Disturbed sleep is the most commonly reported health side effect of shift work. So, here we will discuss sleep strategies for shift workers.
Sleep is a core physiological function and impacts so many important areas of our life—our energy, appetite, motivation, attention/concentration, our efficiency at work, and even our mood—and the stakes are high when chronic sleep issues are left unaddressed. Shift workers are the highest risk population for sleep problems given that they are operating against environmental cues that reset our internal biological clocks on a daily basis (such as; light, meal times). It is particularly important for shift workers to pay attention to strategies that can help them improve their sleep.
Can medications help?
Many people struggling with disrupted and irregular sleep choose to take sleeping medications as an ‘easy solution’. The prescription medications that assist with sleep can be very alluring and are highly addictive, and people often quickly develop tolerance toward them— requiring higher amounts of the medication to achieve beneficial results. Many also experience rebound insomnia, where once stopping medication sleep problems become worse than they were prior to starting. Because of this, most sleep aids should only be taken for short windows of time such as five to ten days.
Improving sleep: 5 Strategies for shift workers
Here are some of the best strategies to improve sleep through easy changes to behaviour and your daily routine.
- Pay attention to light exposure. Given the significance of light in impacting our sleep/wake cycle, it is important to decrease exposure to light when shifts are complete and it is time to sleep (e.g. wear sunglasses when heading home from work, have black-out blinds in your bedroom), and increase light when it is time to work and be alert. This can be achieved by wearing sunglasses when heading home from work during the day time and using blackout curtains and upon rising exposing yourself to light for approximately 15 to 20 minutes by using a lightbox can have a significant impact.
- Develop a bedtime ritual. Chose an activity that will be you unwind from the shift such as reading the paper or taking a warm bath.
- Restrict the bedroom environment for sleeping only. Keep watching TV or reading out of the bedroom and only go to bed when you’re ready to sleep.
- Schedule short naps before evening shifts to increase alertness. A short nap would typically be 30-45 minutes maximum, any longer can disrupt regular sleep patterns. If possible, see if your workplace will allow you to build in scheduled naps, many employers are increasingly recognizing the importance of this.
- Discuss shift rotations with your manager. If possible, having less frequent shift rotations can allow the body to regain some consistency in sleep patterns. The best situation is to be able to work the same or similar shift for a longer period and have them rotate clockwise fashion (ie moving from day, to evening, then night).
A significant number of adults are affected by sleep problems, those who are engaged in shift work are especially susceptible to sleep problems. Behavioural strategies do work to help manage sleep, but the key is to implement these strategies for several weeks or longer to experience the benefit. So don’t give up.