Behavioral Therapy

Shift-Work

Getting enough sleep is key. That may be obvious, but so many people working shifts aren’t able to get the sleep they need. Many places that have people working on shifts also have resources for how to adapt to shift work. There are resources on the web, too.

Symptoms

If you work shifts, do you have any of these symptoms?

• Are you finding that you are increasingly irritabile, moody, being emotional and easily losing it, being too sensitive, defensive, paranoid, forgetful, or just plain contrary?
  
• Are you tired, worn out, lost your energy, missing your sex drive, having broken sleep, feel like your internal clock is out of whack, constipated, stomach problems, having troubles eating properly? Are you dehydrated, have a dry mouth, increasing numbers of colds and flu?
  
• Do you have difficulties in falling asleep or staying asleep, chronic insomnia? Is it hard to stay awake at work? Have you increased use of sleeping pills? Has it become more difficult to exercise and spend time with the people you love?
  
• Are you drinking alcohol or using drugs more?

Tips and Techniques

These are the things that have been linked to shift work in many studies. You probably can’t change your shift work situation right now, but you can take control of it in your life. Here are some basic recommendations:

• Keep your sleeping room, cool, dark, and quiet.
• Wear dark sunglasses to keep the environment dark as possible when you are driving home, or preparing to go to bed. Turn up lights as much as possible when you are supposed to be awake. Bright lights and dark make a difference.
• Unplug the phone or use answering machines.
• Put a sign on your doorbell or disconnect it. Don’t answer the door, get tough with any obligations you may feel towards others. Your sleep is very important.
• Caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol all damage sleep - avoid them as much as possible.
• Keep your schedule as regular as possible, given your work requirements.
• Talk with your family and friends, get them to help protect your daytime sleep time. If need be, hire a baby-sitter to guard your sleep time.
• One long sleep is best, but if you can’t take several good naps.
• You may be too tired to exercise, but that has been shown to be a primary helper in getting good sleep. You may want to work in some exercise times at breaks during work, or during your awake time away from work. Exercising raises your body temperature, that helps keep you awake around the time you exercise. It then makes a cool period possible for when you need to sleep.

Web Resources:

The Night Shift Initiative (tm) -- "Serving the Health, Happiness, Lifestyle and Work Performance Needs of the Shiftwork Community (tm)"

Linkages from shift lag to other shift work sites

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