November 2, 2025 • 23 mins
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We challenge the common advice to phase-shift into night shift and lay out a simpler plan that protects your body clock. Treat nights like late evenings, anchor to daylight and meal timing, and use short naps so you can actually enjoy your days off.
• minimum circadian disruption as the core goal
• jet lag analogy applied carefully to shift work
• consistent wake time beats chasing hours
• short naps vs full cycles to manage sleep inertia
• daylight exposure and movement as daily anchors
• eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at normal times
• avoid sedatives for daytime sleep
• step-by-step plan for first, middle, and final night
• practical reset on the day you finish nights
• better outcomes for women’s infradian rhythm
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It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on
If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealthyshift.com
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Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional. Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (01:41):
Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to
be.
Welcome to a healthy shift.
My name is Roger Sutherland,certified nutritionist, veteran
law enforcement officer and 24-7shift worker for almost four
decades.
Through this podcast, I aim toeducate shift workers using
evidence-based methods to notonly survive the rigors of shift
(02:04):
work, but thrive.
My goal is to empower shiftworkers to improve their health
and well-being so they have moreenergy to do the things they
love.
Enjoy today's show.
And welcome back to a HealthyShift podcast.
My name is Roger Sutherland, andI am your tour guide in your
(02:25):
shift working journey.
Something I want to talk abouttoday.
I get asked a lot of questions,and I'm learning more and more
and more about this particulartopic.
And what is the best way to gointo, go through, and come out
of the dreaded night shift?
This is an important topicbecause I think science is
(02:45):
wrong.
And I'm actually challengingscientists in the background and
researchers at the moment withmy own hypothesis around why I
think that what informationthey're giving people around how
to go into through an outernight shift is wrong.
And it's been accepted reallywell by the people, and they
(03:08):
want to do further research inthis area.
Now, there's a very good reasonfor this because I didn't
realize, but over my journey,I've actually been putting this
strategy in place, and it workedfor me and worked exceptionally
well for me, and it will workfor you too.
One of the things that we needto be really careful of in
(03:31):
relation to going into throughand out of night shift, and my
attitude has always been get inand get out of night shift as
quickly as you can with theminimum amount of circum
disruption.
And we tend to find thatresearch shows and a lot of apps
and things like that as we as wego through and we phase shift
(03:54):
into particular areas.
Like for argument's sake,there's apps for when we travel,
and it's to help us to avoid jetlag, which is literally just
social um jet lag, but it's toavoid jet lag.
And what it does is it graduallyphase shifts us into the new
time zone of the area that we'reactually going in to holiday.
(04:16):
And then what it does is itphase shifts us into that so
that when we arrive at thedestination, our circadian clock
has already been moved.
And with it being moved, itactually gets to the stage where
when we land in where we'regoing, we're actually ready to
get up and go.
Now, I've spoken about thistopic numerous times on the
podcast around when we travel,what's the best way to beat jet
(04:39):
lag?
And there's a really simple wayto beat jet lag, and that is
when you get to the newdestination, is you hit all
three of the main zeitgeivers orzeitgebers, which are the time
cues to our circadian rhythm,and that is to get early
daylight.
So get up at the early time whenyou're in your new destination,
get early daylight, eatbreakfast, lunch, and dinner at
(05:03):
the normal times, and to getmovement.
And if you think about it,that's generally what we do when
we hit a new time zone.
Because when we hit this newtime zone, we we're excited
about the new destination.
We get up, we get out, we go andhave breakfast somewhere.
When we have breakfast, we'removing all day because we're out
(05:23):
to a guiding and looking ateverything that we want to look
at.
And then we've got breakfast atbreakfast time, lunch at lunch
time, dinner at dinner time.
And then when it starts to getdark, we're exhausted because
it's the end of the day, and wego to bed in the dark and sleep.
And if you think about it, thatjust makes sense as to why our
time clock then goes, okay,here's a new time zone.
(05:45):
I want to live in this timezone.
Now, this is where it getstricky for us shift workers, and
the reason why it gets reallytricky is because of this.
We tend to go into and out ofnight shift with one, two,
three, or for some people, sevennights of night shift.
I still would argue that throughthe seven nights of night shift,
(06:06):
you're still better offfollowing this theory.
And you know why I say that?
Because that's exactly what Idid, and it worked exceptionally
well for me.
One of the biggest issues thatwe have as shift workers is not
having enough energy to do thethings that we want to do on our
days off.
And the reason why we don't isbecause of this circadian
disruption, and it's because weare uneducated as to how to go
(06:29):
into, go through, and come outof our actual night shift.
And I'm here to change it.
And I have been coachinghundreds of shift workers over
the last five years, six years,and I've literally been teaching
them a whole new way of goinginto, through, and out of night
shift, and it has changed theirlives.
In particular, it's changed thefemales' lives.
(06:51):
And the reason being, the lesscircadian disruption that
females have, then the lessimpact there is on their
infradian rhythm, the menstrualcycle, which means that they get
into and get out of night shiftwithout having the complications
that females tend to have onrotating shift work.
(07:11):
Now, as a general rule, sciencewill inform that we should phase
shift into the night shift andthen phase shift out of it.
And I dispute that.
And my hypothesis is very clearon this, that I honestly believe
that we need to get minimumdisruption.
And how do we go about achievingthis?
(07:31):
Well, the first thing that Iwanted to say was on the day
that you're going into yournight shift, I think you need to
be going to bed at your normaltime the night before and
getting up at the normal time.
Now remember, sleep regularityis a lot more important than the
actual quantity of sleep thatyou're actually getting.
All right.
So to make that quite clear,we've got to stop chasing this
(07:56):
eight, nine hours sleep becausethat's what science tells us we
actually need for health.
It's far more important for usto be getting up at the same
time and bonus points for goingto bed at the same time every
day for regularity in ourcircadian rhythm and circadian
system.
And by doing this, what actuallyhappens is we are in a position
(08:19):
where we tend to sleep better atnight and we get good, solid,
restorative sleep.
The way we catch up on sleep isto go to bed earlier.
And I've got a golden rulearound that, and I've spoken
about this a number of times.
Next time you're sitting on thecouch with your partner,
husband, wife, or or your bestfriend, and you are
(08:41):
contemplating do I go to bed orwatch another episode of
something on Netflix, I want youto ask the person that you're
sitting with if they would setan alarm for 4 a.m.
to get up and actually watch thenext episode of whatever it is
that you're watching.
I guarantee to you the answerwill be no, because no one's
gonna set an alarm at 4 a.m.
to get up and watch somethingthat is already on Netflix that
(09:04):
you can watch at any time.
Have I made my point?
You can watch it anytime.
It's gonna be there the nextday.
So what you can do is just turnit the hell off and go to bed
and catch up on the mostimportant pillar of health that
we have in our life, and that issleep.
And the way we catch up on sleepis we actually go to bed earlier
(09:27):
to catch up on it.
We don't sleep in.
Sleeping in phase shifts ourcircadian rhythm and causes us
all sorts of problems.
So let's talk about the goinginto, going through, and coming
out of night shift.
A lot of you that are listeningto this podcast will probably
only do maybe one, maybe two, orthree nights of night shift.
(09:48):
There will be those of you thatdo seven, but the shifts are
shorter.
But let me just be clear that ifyou're doing anything less than
three nights of night shift,four, then this is the way that
you should be actually doing it.
And I would highly recommendthat you get your pen and paper
because I'm going to go throughthis as to how the best way to
go in and out of it is, or comeback to this eight and a half
(10:12):
minute mark where I'm about tostart going through the steps of
how you can go through it.
So, day shift.
Sorry, the daytime going intoyour first night of night shift.
I want to be very clear withyou.
You do not stay up late thenight before going into a night
shift, and then get up later sothat you're phase shifting
(10:35):
yourself into your night shift.
What you've just done is youhave literally just added
another circadian disruption.
And we know categorically inscience that any form of
circadian disruption has a greatimpact on us biologically.
So why would you add anothernight of circadian disruption?
(10:57):
The key is to go to bed earlythe night before and get up
early on the night that youstart night shift.
I know I can hear your voicesalready saying to me, Oh, but
I'll be really tired going inthe night of night shift.
You will find that when youcondition yourself to doing
this, when you get up early,knowing that you've got night
shift, you will then be able topower nap in the afternoon.
(11:21):
And for those of you that say, Ican't power nap, you need to
learn to relax so that you canpower nap because power napping
is your superpower as a shiftworker.
So what we do is we get up earlyon the day we're going into
night shift.
I don't care what time you startnight shift, this still works.
So you get up at seven o'clock.
(11:42):
When you're getting up at seveno'clock, you go have breakfast
at breakfast time, you do yourhydrate, you do your caffeinate,
you get up and you get out inthe early light.
Take yourself for a walk aroundthe block so that you're getting
that light.
Imagine that you've just gone onholiday, right?
And you are getting to a newdestination, you're getting up,
you're excited about it, you'regonna go and get lights, you're
(12:04):
gonna go to the gym that day.
That's the day that you hit yourbiggest lifts and you really hit
it and go well.
And then what you do is you eatat the normal breakfast, lunch,
and dinner times before you goin for that night shift.
Now, depending on what time youstart, depends on what time you
can actually get your nap in.
I want you to remember this.
(12:26):
We nap up to 30 minutes.
We don't nap longer than 30minutes unless we are napping
for 90 minutes, which is almostconsidered a s what which is
actually a sleep cycle.
So, what we want to do is nap upto three minutes, uh thirty
minutes.
Don't go and nap for an hourbecause when you wake up, you're
(12:47):
waking yourself up right in themiddle of a sleep cycle, which
is where you get that sleepinertia that makes you feel
absolutely dreadful.
Up early, eat at normal times,early daylight, and then have a
nap in the afternoon for up to30 minutes.
All we're doing here is justreleasing the sleep pressure.
Then the next thing is you'regoing into your night of night
(13:10):
shift and you do your nightshift as optimally as you
possibly can.
Are you gonna be tired?
Yeah, of course you are.
And the reason why you're gonnabe tired is because you have a
disrupted circadian rhythm.
But let me just ask you thisquestion.
When you and the girls or theguys are going out clubbing or
you're gonna go out at night,did you phase shift into the
night that you went to the club?
(13:31):
You did not.
So that's my analogy of it.
It's just a late night.
Night shift, just treat it as alate night.
And then when you get home fromthat shift, we go straight to
bed.
We don't dilly-dally around.
It's not a day to get the carservice.
We need to organize to have thekids dropped at school and
everything else done for us.
(13:52):
We go home, we have our hotshower, we climb into bed, we do
our deep breathing, and wesleep.
But what we do is we justconsider it a nap.
Don't try and think, oh, I'vegot to get my eight hours sleep.
Now, the reason why I say thisto you is because this rule that
you've got to get seven to ninehours of sleep, or what science
(14:14):
shows is optimal.
I want you to remember this.
You are not designed, or shouldyou be sleeping during the day
in any way whatsoever.
So don't try.
Consider it a nap.
One of the biggest problems withthe science around this seven to
nine hours is it means that whenyou are doing night shift, you
think I've got to get eighthours.
So you start popping medicationsor using things like wrist of it
(14:38):
or sleeping tablets to sleep.
And I want to be quite clearwith you.
While you are on thosemedications, you are
unconscious, you are notsleeping, and your body does not
go through those normal sleepcycles.
It's dangerous for you to takethose medications during the
day.
Because while you're taking themduring the day and you are
(14:58):
unconscious, when you actuallygo to go to work that night, you
haven't had sleep.
Your body hasn't gone throughits normal sleep cycles.
So, therefore, have you evernoticed that the people that use
rest of it or use any sort ofmedications to sleep with are
the ones that are hanging offthe counter at work because they
can't function on night shift.
(15:19):
It's because they haven't slept.
So let's change the thinking.
Let's completely change thethinking around the sleep
between night shift and let's goto bed and call it a nap.
Because once the sleep pressureis gone and you wake up, get up.
Just get up and just get out inthe light.
Get out in that daylight andtrigger your circadian rhythm
(15:42):
and let it know it's daytime.
Go about your personal jobs, doyour meal prepping, go do the
shopping, do whatever you've gotto do, get out in that light and
keep moving around.
And then before you go back towork and eat at the normal
times, breakfast, lunch, anddinner.
And then before you've got to goback to work, just lie down, put
your sleep mask on, do yourbreathing, and relax for about
(16:04):
half an hour.
That's the best way.
And then go into the next nightor night shift.
This is if you've got twonights, and if you've got three,
repeat that day again.
And if you've got seven, repeatthat again.
And there's a reason for this.
Because the day that you'recoming out of night shift, this
is a day where you come home atthat time, at the normal time,
(16:28):
shower, get into bed, and assoon as you wake up or set an
alarm for three hours or fourand a half, again, we sleep in
90-minute cycles.
As soon as that alarm goes off,get up, get out of bed, strip
the bed and put it in thewashing machine.
And the reason why we do that isbecause it stops us from getting
back into it.
(16:49):
Open the blinds and getdaylight.
Go and hydrate, caffeinate, goout in the daylight.
And that is the day that youorganize to catch up with a
friend and have a brunch.
And this keeps you occupiedright through until the evening
where you will be absolutelyexhausted by that stage.
Because you've only had minimalsleep, three hours or four and a
(17:11):
half hours.
By the time you get to seven oreight o'clock, you're ready for
sleep.
Hello?
Isn't this what we want at thispoint in time?
Yes, it is.
And you will find that you willnot only go to sleep, but you'll
stay asleep.
And the reason being is becauseyou were exposing your circadian
rhythm to that blue light inbetween those nights.
(17:33):
So your body thinks, oh, it wasjust a late night.
Again, let me go back to thescenario or the analogy that I
used about the nights when youwere having late nights going to
a club.
You didn't phase shift into it,and you certainly didn't phase
shift out of it.
What you did was you just had alate night, went to the club,
(17:53):
and then the next night, becauseyou were exhausted, you went to
bed early and you slept, and youslept right through again.
Keep that in mind because thisis the principle that I'm using
for people to go into, gothrough, and come out of night
shift.
You will find that you willsleep so much better on that
night coming out of night shiftbecause you got up early and
(18:15):
exposed yourself to light.
You will also find that you willsleep better on that night
coming out of night shiftbecause of the blue light
exposure that you were gettingduring the days in between your
nights.
And the reason being is becauseyour circadian rhythm is going,
oh, okay, so it's daytime, we'rein the right time now.
(18:36):
And it just is confused.
But as soon as you start puttingit back into that dark time on
that night coming out of nightshift, it goes, oh, okay, here
we are.
It's dark time, it's time to goback to sleep.
And then what will happen isyou'll sleep through.
So many clients that I've hadthat do this phase shifting into
night shift and phase shiftingout.
(18:57):
And then they find that on theirthird or fourth, the third day
coming out of it, they're wakingup and they're lying there awake
from one o'clock in the morninguntil four.
No wonder because you've beenknocking yourself out or you've
been trying to sleep all day inbetween the nights, and you have
literally phase shifted yourcircadian rhythm.
(19:18):
Let's not do that.
Let's start thinking of sleepsbetween nights as naps and just
release the sleep pressure andthen go in and do the next
night, and let's work on givingourselves more optimal time
coming out of our night shift inour days off.
You've done the nights, you'vegot the money in the bank.
(19:41):
Now let's enjoy spending thatmoney during the day instead of
flopping on the couch because wefeel so average.
Remember, shift work is severelydetrimental to your health
massively.
But I can tell you one thing forsure that shift work is more
detrimental without theeducation of how to go about it.
And I'm here to change that.
(20:03):
And what I want to do is I'mcombining my 40 years of what
I've done to help you today witheducation on how to do it.
All I ask is try it.
Just try it.
Try getting up early on thenight you go into night shift.
And when you get tired in theafternoon, go and have a nap.
And then go into the nightshift.
(20:23):
And when you go to sleep and youwake up, don't get frustrated
and think you need to takemedications.
Get up and get out of bed, goand get the light.
Hydrate, caffeinate, eat at thenormal times.
Eat at normal times.
Remember, breakfast, lunch, anddinner, not outside of that.
Otherwise, you are confusingyour circadian rhythm even more.
Get that daylight, have a nap,go in for the next night, but
(20:44):
then you've got to get up assoon as you wake up coming out
of the night shift and get onwith the day outside in the
daylight.
We don't crawl out of bed andcrawl to the couch and sit there
watching Netflix all afternoon.
The lighting inside your houseis not good enough.
Now I hope this helps.
If you've got any any questionsin relation to this, please feel
(21:08):
free to reach out and ask me anyquestions.
The one thing that I ask you todo is to try this because you
will find that this will make amassive difference to you in how
you function on your days off.
It's not about how we functionon our nights, it's about how we
function on our days off.
(21:28):
And let's face it, we all reallywant to thrive on our days off.
Because if we're just thrivingin our time at work and we're
not giving anything back in ourdays off, then what's the point?
We go to work to earn thedollars to enjoy our time off.
We can't just crawl until we getto leave because you're going to
(21:49):
go back into that same toxicenvironment again, and we need
to change this.
I want you to thrive on yourdays off.
It's one of my mantras in mybusiness, giving you more time
to thrive in your days off.
Everybody wants that.
You want it because you are sickand tired, I'm sure, of really
(22:10):
crawling from one shift to thenext.
The key to thriving in shiftwork is to get up at
approximately the same timeevery single day, and you get
bonus points for going to bed atthe same time the night before.
I know we can't always do that,and that's why they're bonus
points.
But if you want to catch up onsleep, go to bed earlier and
(22:32):
catch up on the sleep, but stillalways, always get up at
approximately the same time.
Okay, anything to do with that,feel free to reach out and
message me.
That's today's podcast.
I hope you got something out ofit.
And if it's really got yourthinking, share it.
Share it onto your your ownInstagram stories, share it with
(22:53):
your friends, let everybody knowabout it.
I want to say thank you verymuch for listening, and I'll
catch you on the next one.
Thank you for listening.
If you enjoyed this episode, besure to subscribe so you get
notified whenever a new episodeis released.
(23:13):
It would also be ever so helpfulif you could leave a rating and
review on the app you'recurrently listening on.
If you want to know more aboutme or work with me, you can go
to ahealthyshift.com.
I'll catch you on the next one.
Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to
be.
Welcome to a healthy shift.
My name is Roger Sutherland,certified nutritionist, veteran
law enforcement officer and 24-7shift worker for almost four
decades.
Through this podcast, I aim toeducate shift workers using
evidence-based methods to notonly survive the rigors of shift
(02:04):
work, but thrive.
My goal is to empower shiftworkers to improve their health
and well-being so they have moreenergy to do the things they
love.
Enjoy today's show.
And welcome back to a HealthyShift podcast.
My name is Roger Sutherland, andI am your tour guide in your
(02:25):
shift working journey.
Something I want to talk abouttoday.
I get asked a lot of questions,and I'm learning more and more
and more about this particulartopic.
And what is the best way to gointo, go through, and come out
of the dreaded night shift?
This is an important topicbecause I think science is
(02:45):
wrong.
And I'm actually challengingscientists in the background and
researchers at the moment withmy own hypothesis around why I
think that what informationthey're giving people around how
to go into through an outernight shift is wrong.
And it's been accepted reallywell by the people, and they
(03:08):
want to do further research inthis area.
Now, there's a very good reasonfor this because I didn't
realize, but over my journey,I've actually been putting this
strategy in place, and it workedfor me and worked exceptionally
well for me, and it will workfor you too.
One of the things that we needto be really careful of in
(03:31):
relation to going into throughand out of night shift, and my
attitude has always been get inand get out of night shift as
quickly as you can with theminimum amount of circum
disruption.
And we tend to find thatresearch shows and a lot of apps
and things like that as we as wego through and we phase shift
(03:54):
into particular areas.
Like for argument's sake,there's apps for when we travel,
and it's to help us to avoid jetlag, which is literally just
social um jet lag, but it's toavoid jet lag.
And what it does is it graduallyphase shifts us into the new
time zone of the area that we'reactually going in to holiday.
(04:16):
And then what it does is itphase shifts us into that so
that when we arrive at thedestination, our circadian clock
has already been moved.
And with it being moved, itactually gets to the stage where
when we land in where we'regoing, we're actually ready to
get up and go.
Now, I've spoken about thistopic numerous times on the
podcast around when we travel,what's the best way to beat jet
(04:39):
lag?
And there's a really simple wayto beat jet lag, and that is
when you get to the newdestination, is you hit all
three of the main zeitgeivers orzeitgebers, which are the time
cues to our circadian rhythm,and that is to get early
daylight.
So get up at the early time whenyou're in your new destination,
get early daylight, eatbreakfast, lunch, and dinner at
(05:03):
the normal times, and to getmovement.
And if you think about it,that's generally what we do when
we hit a new time zone.
Because when we hit this newtime zone, we we're excited
about the new destination.
We get up, we get out, we go andhave breakfast somewhere.
When we have breakfast, we'removing all day because we're out
(05:23):
to a guiding and looking ateverything that we want to look
at.
And then we've got breakfast atbreakfast time, lunch at lunch
time, dinner at dinner time.
And then when it starts to getdark, we're exhausted because
it's the end of the day, and wego to bed in the dark and sleep.
And if you think about it, thatjust makes sense as to why our
time clock then goes, okay,here's a new time zone.
(05:45):
I want to live in this timezone.
Now, this is where it getstricky for us shift workers, and
the reason why it gets reallytricky is because of this.
We tend to go into and out ofnight shift with one, two,
three, or for some people, sevennights of night shift.
I still would argue that throughthe seven nights of night shift,
(06:06):
you're still better offfollowing this theory.
And you know why I say that?
Because that's exactly what Idid, and it worked exceptionally
well for me.
One of the biggest issues thatwe have as shift workers is not
having enough energy to do thethings that we want to do on our
days off.
And the reason why we don't isbecause of this circadian
disruption, and it's because weare uneducated as to how to go
(06:29):
into, go through, and come outof our actual night shift.
And I'm here to change it.
And I have been coachinghundreds of shift workers over
the last five years, six years,and I've literally been teaching
them a whole new way of goinginto, through, and out of night
shift, and it has changed theirlives.
In particular, it's changed thefemales' lives.
(06:51):
And the reason being, the lesscircadian disruption that
females have, then the lessimpact there is on their
infradian rhythm, the menstrualcycle, which means that they get
into and get out of night shiftwithout having the complications
that females tend to have onrotating shift work.
(07:11):
Now, as a general rule, sciencewill inform that we should phase
shift into the night shift andthen phase shift out of it.
And I dispute that.
And my hypothesis is very clearon this, that I honestly believe
that we need to get minimumdisruption.
And how do we go about achievingthis?
(07:31):
Well, the first thing that Iwanted to say was on the day
that you're going into yournight shift, I think you need to
be going to bed at your normaltime the night before and
getting up at the normal time.
Now remember, sleep regularityis a lot more important than the
actual quantity of sleep thatyou're actually getting.
All right.
So to make that quite clear,we've got to stop chasing this
(07:56):
eight, nine hours sleep becausethat's what science tells us we
actually need for health.
It's far more important for usto be getting up at the same
time and bonus points for goingto bed at the same time every
day for regularity in ourcircadian rhythm and circadian
system.
And by doing this, what actuallyhappens is we are in a position
(08:19):
where we tend to sleep better atnight and we get good, solid,
restorative sleep.
The way we catch up on sleep isto go to bed earlier.
And I've got a golden rulearound that, and I've spoken
about this a number of times.
Next time you're sitting on thecouch with your partner,
husband, wife, or or your bestfriend, and you are
(08:41):
contemplating do I go to bed orwatch another episode of
something on Netflix, I want youto ask the person that you're
sitting with if they would setan alarm for 4 a.m.
to get up and actually watch thenext episode of whatever it is
that you're watching.
I guarantee to you the answerwill be no, because no one's
gonna set an alarm at 4 a.m.
to get up and watch somethingthat is already on Netflix that
(09:04):
you can watch at any time.
Have I made my point?
You can watch it anytime.
It's gonna be there the nextday.
So what you can do is just turnit the hell off and go to bed
and catch up on the mostimportant pillar of health that
we have in our life, and that issleep.
And the way we catch up on sleepis we actually go to bed earlier
(09:27):
to catch up on it.
We don't sleep in.
Sleeping in phase shifts ourcircadian rhythm and causes us
all sorts of problems.
So let's talk about the goinginto, going through, and coming
out of night shift.
A lot of you that are listeningto this podcast will probably
only do maybe one, maybe two, orthree nights of night shift.
(09:48):
There will be those of you thatdo seven, but the shifts are
shorter.
But let me just be clear that ifyou're doing anything less than
three nights of night shift,four, then this is the way that
you should be actually doing it.
And I would highly recommendthat you get your pen and paper
because I'm going to go throughthis as to how the best way to
go in and out of it is, or comeback to this eight and a half
(10:12):
minute mark where I'm about tostart going through the steps of
how you can go through it.
So, day shift.
Sorry, the daytime going intoyour first night of night shift.
I want to be very clear withyou.
You do not stay up late thenight before going into a night
shift, and then get up later sothat you're phase shifting
(10:35):
yourself into your night shift.
What you've just done is youhave literally just added
another circadian disruption.
And we know categorically inscience that any form of
circadian disruption has a greatimpact on us biologically.
So why would you add anothernight of circadian disruption?
(10:57):
The key is to go to bed earlythe night before and get up
early on the night that youstart night shift.
I know I can hear your voicesalready saying to me, Oh, but
I'll be really tired going inthe night of night shift.
You will find that when youcondition yourself to doing
this, when you get up early,knowing that you've got night
shift, you will then be able topower nap in the afternoon.
(11:21):
And for those of you that say, Ican't power nap, you need to
learn to relax so that you canpower nap because power napping
is your superpower as a shiftworker.
So what we do is we get up earlyon the day we're going into
night shift.
I don't care what time you startnight shift, this still works.
So you get up at seven o'clock.
(11:42):
When you're getting up at seveno'clock, you go have breakfast
at breakfast time, you do yourhydrate, you do your caffeinate,
you get up and you get out inthe early light.
Take yourself for a walk aroundthe block so that you're getting
that light.
Imagine that you've just gone onholiday, right?
And you are getting to a newdestination, you're getting up,
you're excited about it, you'regonna go and get lights, you're
(12:04):
gonna go to the gym that day.
That's the day that you hit yourbiggest lifts and you really hit
it and go well.
And then what you do is you eatat the normal breakfast, lunch,
and dinner times before you goin for that night shift.
Now, depending on what time youstart, depends on what time you
can actually get your nap in.
I want you to remember this.
(12:26):
We nap up to 30 minutes.
We don't nap longer than 30minutes unless we are napping
for 90 minutes, which is almostconsidered a s what which is
actually a sleep cycle.
So, what we want to do is nap upto three minutes, uh thirty
minutes.
Don't go and nap for an hourbecause when you wake up, you're
(12:47):
waking yourself up right in themiddle of a sleep cycle, which
is where you get that sleepinertia that makes you feel
absolutely dreadful.
Up early, eat at normal times,early daylight, and then have a
nap in the afternoon for up to30 minutes.
All we're doing here is justreleasing the sleep pressure.
Then the next thing is you'regoing into your night of night
(13:10):
shift and you do your nightshift as optimally as you
possibly can.
Are you gonna be tired?
Yeah, of course you are.
And the reason why you're gonnabe tired is because you have a
disrupted circadian rhythm.
But let me just ask you thisquestion.
When you and the girls or theguys are going out clubbing or
you're gonna go out at night,did you phase shift into the
night that you went to the club?
(13:31):
You did not.
So that's my analogy of it.
It's just a late night.
Night shift, just treat it as alate night.
And then when you get home fromthat shift, we go straight to
bed.
We don't dilly-dally around.
It's not a day to get the carservice.
We need to organize to have thekids dropped at school and
everything else done for us.
(13:52):
We go home, we have our hotshower, we climb into bed, we do
our deep breathing, and wesleep.
But what we do is we justconsider it a nap.
Don't try and think, oh, I'vegot to get my eight hours sleep.
Now, the reason why I say thisto you is because this rule that
you've got to get seven to ninehours of sleep, or what science
(14:14):
shows is optimal.
I want you to remember this.
You are not designed, or shouldyou be sleeping during the day
in any way whatsoever.
So don't try.
Consider it a nap.
One of the biggest problems withthe science around this seven to
nine hours is it means that whenyou are doing night shift, you
think I've got to get eighthours.
So you start popping medicationsor using things like wrist of it
(14:38):
or sleeping tablets to sleep.
And I want to be quite clearwith you.
While you are on thosemedications, you are
unconscious, you are notsleeping, and your body does not
go through those normal sleepcycles.
It's dangerous for you to takethose medications during the
day.
Because while you're taking themduring the day and you are
(14:58):
unconscious, when you actuallygo to go to work that night, you
haven't had sleep.
Your body hasn't gone throughits normal sleep cycles.
So, therefore, have you evernoticed that the people that use
rest of it or use any sort ofmedications to sleep with are
the ones that are hanging offthe counter at work because they
can't function on night shift.
(15:19):
It's because they haven't slept.
So let's change the thinking.
Let's completely change thethinking around the sleep
between night shift and let's goto bed and call it a nap.
Because once the sleep pressureis gone and you wake up, get up.
Just get up and just get out inthe light.
Get out in that daylight andtrigger your circadian rhythm
(15:42):
and let it know it's daytime.
Go about your personal jobs, doyour meal prepping, go do the
shopping, do whatever you've gotto do, get out in that light and
keep moving around.
And then before you go back towork and eat at the normal
times, breakfast, lunch, anddinner.
And then before you've got to goback to work, just lie down, put
your sleep mask on, do yourbreathing, and relax for about
(16:04):
half an hour.
That's the best way.
And then go into the next nightor night shift.
This is if you've got twonights, and if you've got three,
repeat that day again.
And if you've got seven, repeatthat again.
And there's a reason for this.
Because the day that you'recoming out of night shift, this
is a day where you come home atthat time, at the normal time,
(16:28):
shower, get into bed, and assoon as you wake up or set an
alarm for three hours or fourand a half, again, we sleep in
90-minute cycles.
As soon as that alarm goes off,get up, get out of bed, strip
the bed and put it in thewashing machine.
And the reason why we do that isbecause it stops us from getting
back into it.
(16:49):
Open the blinds and getdaylight.
Go and hydrate, caffeinate, goout in the daylight.
And that is the day that youorganize to catch up with a
friend and have a brunch.
And this keeps you occupiedright through until the evening
where you will be absolutelyexhausted by that stage.
Because you've only had minimalsleep, three hours or four and a
(17:11):
half hours.
By the time you get to seven oreight o'clock, you're ready for
sleep.
Hello?
Isn't this what we want at thispoint in time?
Yes, it is.
And you will find that you willnot only go to sleep, but you'll
stay asleep.
And the reason being is becauseyou were exposing your circadian
rhythm to that blue light inbetween those nights.
(17:33):
So your body thinks, oh, it wasjust a late night.
Again, let me go back to thescenario or the analogy that I
used about the nights when youwere having late nights going to
a club.
You didn't phase shift into it,and you certainly didn't phase
shift out of it.
What you did was you just had alate night, went to the club,
(17:53):
and then the next night, becauseyou were exhausted, you went to
bed early and you slept, and youslept right through again.
Keep that in mind because thisis the principle that I'm using
for people to go into, gothrough, and come out of night
shift.
You will find that you willsleep so much better on that
night coming out of night shiftbecause you got up early and
(18:15):
exposed yourself to light.
You will also find that you willsleep better on that night
coming out of night shiftbecause of the blue light
exposure that you were gettingduring the days in between your
nights.
And the reason being is becauseyour circadian rhythm is going,
oh, okay, so it's daytime, we'rein the right time now.
(18:36):
And it just is confused.
But as soon as you start puttingit back into that dark time on
that night coming out of nightshift, it goes, oh, okay, here
we are.
It's dark time, it's time to goback to sleep.
And then what will happen isyou'll sleep through.
So many clients that I've hadthat do this phase shifting into
night shift and phase shiftingout.
(18:57):
And then they find that on theirthird or fourth, the third day
coming out of it, they're wakingup and they're lying there awake
from one o'clock in the morninguntil four.
No wonder because you've beenknocking yourself out or you've
been trying to sleep all day inbetween the nights, and you have
literally phase shifted yourcircadian rhythm.
(19:18):
Let's not do that.
Let's start thinking of sleepsbetween nights as naps and just
release the sleep pressure andthen go in and do the next
night, and let's work on givingourselves more optimal time
coming out of our night shift inour days off.
You've done the nights, you'vegot the money in the bank.
(19:41):
Now let's enjoy spending thatmoney during the day instead of
flopping on the couch because wefeel so average.
Remember, shift work is severelydetrimental to your health
massively.
But I can tell you one thing forsure that shift work is more
detrimental without theeducation of how to go about it.
And I'm here to change that.
(20:03):
And what I want to do is I'mcombining my 40 years of what
I've done to help you today witheducation on how to do it.
All I ask is try it.
Just try it.
Try getting up early on thenight you go into night shift.
And when you get tired in theafternoon, go and have a nap.
And then go into the nightshift.
(20:23):
And when you go to sleep and youwake up, don't get frustrated
and think you need to takemedications.
Get up and get out of bed, goand get the light.
Hydrate, caffeinate, eat at thenormal times.
Eat at normal times.
Remember, breakfast, lunch, anddinner, not outside of that.
Otherwise, you are confusingyour circadian rhythm even more.
Get that daylight, have a nap,go in for the next night, but
(20:44):
then you've got to get up assoon as you wake up coming out
of the night shift and get onwith the day outside in the
daylight.
We don't crawl out of bed andcrawl to the couch and sit there
watching Netflix all afternoon.
The lighting inside your houseis not good enough.
Now I hope this helps.
If you've got any any questionsin relation to this, please feel
(21:08):
free to reach out and ask me anyquestions.
The one thing that I ask you todo is to try this because you
will find that this will make amassive difference to you in how
you function on your days off.
It's not about how we functionon our nights, it's about how we
function on our days off.
(21:28):
And let's face it, we all reallywant to thrive on our days off.
Because if we're just thrivingin our time at work and we're
not giving anything back in ourdays off, then what's the point?
We go to work to earn thedollars to enjoy our time off.
We can't just crawl until we getto leave because you're going to
(21:49):
go back into that same toxicenvironment again, and we need
to change this.
I want you to thrive on yourdays off.
It's one of my mantras in mybusiness, giving you more time
to thrive in your days off.
Everybody wants that.
You want it because you are sickand tired, I'm sure, of really
(22:10):
crawling from one shift to thenext.
The key to thriving in shiftwork is to get up at
approximately the same timeevery single day, and you get
bonus points for going to bed atthe same time the night before.
I know we can't always do that,and that's why they're bonus
points.
But if you want to catch up onsleep, go to bed earlier and
(22:32):
catch up on the sleep, but stillalways, always get up at
approximately the same time.
Okay, anything to do with that,feel free to reach out and
message me.
That's today's podcast.
I hope you got something out ofit.
And if it's really got yourthinking, share it.
Share it onto your your ownInstagram stories, share it with
(22:53):
your friends, let everybody knowabout it.
I want to say thank you verymuch for listening, and I'll
catch you on the next one.
Thank you for listening.
If you enjoyed this episode, besure to subscribe so you get
notified whenever a new episodeis released.
(23:13):
It would also be ever so helpfulif you could leave a rating and
review on the app you'recurrently listening on.
If you want to know more aboutme or work with me, you can go
to ahealthyshift.com.
I'll catch you on the next one.
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