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November 9, 2025 • 17 mins

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I share three evidence-based strategies to reduce circadian disruption, sleep deeper after nights, and protect long-term health without chasing perfection. Light timing, a simple breath reset, and a true blackout sleep environment form a practical plan you can start tonight.

• Why circadian rhythm misalignment drives night shift risks
• How morning light ruins daytime sleep and how to block it
• What makes orange blue-blocking lenses essential on commute
• How to build a cave-dark, cool, quiet sleep space
• When and why to get daylight after waking
• The 4–6/8 breath reset for nervous system calm
• How longer exhales lower arousal and improve focus
• Treating post-night sleep as a strategic nap
• One-strategy homework to build consistency

If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealthyshift.com

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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


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ANNOUNCING

"The Shift Workers Collective"

https://join.ahealthyshift.com/the-shift-workers-collective

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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 to a Healthy ShiftPodcast.
I'm your host, Roger Sutherland.
Now, if you are a shift worker,in particular a female shift

(02:27):
worker, and you're out there andyou're juggling a mortgage, a
family, and a 2 a.m.
alarm to get up and get going,you know the real struggle is
more than just feeling sleepy.
It's about the constant,deep-down worry that this job is
slowly grinding down yourhealth.
Now, you're running on coffeeand fumes, you're trying to

(02:49):
appease everyone else, yourkids, your partner, your
employer, but there's simply notime left for you at all, is
there?
And you feel exhausted,inconsistent with your exercise,
and your focus is absolutelyshot.
Now, I want to tell you, I knowthat feeling.
I spent over 40 years as aveteran 24-7 shift worker

(03:10):
working in the police as well,for Victoria Police.
And now I've coached hundreds ofwomen just like you.
And I'm here to tell you thatthis feeling is not a personal
failure.
It is a direct consequence ofyour work schedule just fighting
against your biology.
Now, today we're going to talkabout the most researched and

(03:32):
most critical topic for shiftworkers, which is the circadian
rhythm and the night shifthealth risk.
Over the next 12 or so minutes,I'm going to give you three
practical science-backedstrategies that you can
implement immediately to startprotecting your long-term health
starting tonight.

(03:53):
So, let's be clear on thechallenge.
Every cell in your body runs ona 24-hour cycle, and we call
this our circadian rhythm.
Now, I've spoken about thisnumerous times.
I want you to think of it asyour body's master clock.
It controls when you producemelatonin for sleep, when your
blood pressure peaks, and evenwhen your gut is ready to digest

(04:16):
food.
When you work the night shift,what you're doing is you are
literally forcing your body togo against that master clock.
This chronic misalignment iswhat the research calls
circadian disruption.
And it is directly linked to theserious long-term health
concerns that you search for,which is the increased risk of

(04:37):
cardiovascular disease, highblood pressure, and a condition
known as shift work sleepdisorder.
Now, we're not just talkingabout being tired here, we are
talking about long-term strainon your heart and your stress
response system.
Now, the good news is weactually have tools that can
help the body to find safety andbalance even when working

(05:01):
against the sun.
Now, these tools are going torevolve around signals.
The single biggest signal thatwe control is da-da-light.
And that brings me to strategynumber one.
Light is without doubt the mostpowerful signal for your brain

(05:21):
to determine if it's day ornight.
And for a night shift worker, weneed to hack this.
This is the best thing that wecan actually do.
Here's the first thing.
Number one, on the drive home,when you finish your night shift
and the sun is coming up andyou're en route home, that
bright morning light hittingyour eyes is shouting to your

(05:44):
body, wake up.
Now, what this does is itactually sabotages your ability
to get restorative sleep.
And what we need to do is weneed to minimize this light
exposure on your drive or yourwalk home.
And I would highly, highlyrecommend that you utilize blue
light blocking glasses.

(06:06):
Now I've discussed over and overand over again the impact that
blue light has.
In recent episodes, I'veactually discussed the blue
light, and our eye only sees theblue.
And what we need to do is weneed to be making sure that
we're minimizing that.
So what I would suggest that youdo is you buy yourself a quality

(06:27):
pair of blue light blockingglasses.
Now, these are the sunsetlenses, the orange lensed ones.
It's no good going to anoptometrist and buying a set of
glasses and they tell you it'sgot a blue light block in it,
but it's a clear lens.
That doesn't work.
Nor do the yellow ones.
The yellow ones are for screensduring the day or night, but the

(06:48):
the orange sunset ones block allblue light, and you can
literally see the blue beingreflected in them.
Now, what we want to do is wewant to make sure that our eye
is completely covered.
Yep, you're gonna look reallycool driving home.
But what you will do is if youleave those on all the way home,
right up until you get into thatperfectly darkened bedroom and

(07:10):
then take them off to sleep, youwatch what happens and how much
better you sleep.
Now, if you want to see aquality pair of blue light
blocking glasses, we don't justgo and search on the internet
and find the cheapest onesbecause they're cheap and they
don't work.
What I would highly recommendyou do is actually go to my

(07:32):
website, ahealthyshift.com.
That's ahealthyshift.com.
Go up to the top and there's amenu item there that says
resources.
And under that menu is arecommended product page.
And if you go to that page, youwill see that I recommend the
RAR optics because they are thebest.
They are expensive, but they arethe best.

(07:54):
They do the job and they do thejob very, very well.
I would highly recommend thatyou actually here's a little
hint for you.
If you're listening to this onebefore Black Friday, I would
highly recommend that you put apair in your cart and wait.
Wait for Black Friday.
There could be a little treatthere for you, just saying.

(08:16):
Okay, so that's the first one.
The next one, number two, is inthe bedroom.
Now, your bedroom has to mimic acave.
All right, it's got to be pitchblack.
Pitch black.
It needs to be cool and it needsto be dead quiet.
I would highly recommend thatyou invest in true blackout
curtains or one of those rollerblinds to really make your room

(08:38):
absolutely pitch black.
If you're not able to do that oryou're not able to afford doing
that, and I can totallyunderstand that, I would highly
recommend again investing in acomfortable eye mask.
And for this, I highly recommendthe Manta eye mask.
All right.
The reason why I mention it isbecause not only again is it

(08:59):
expensive, but it is good.
It's cooling, it doesn'toverheat you on your face.
It has it's good for sidesleepers.
Um, it's it you can open youreyes under it because it's got
eye cups and your eyes.
So those ladies that have gotthose lashes, you can open those
underneath it.
Pitch black will make a massivedifference to your sleep.

(09:21):
This sends a clear, the clearestpossible signal to your brain
that it's time to actuallyproduce melatonin and reduce
rest.
When it can't see any bluelight, the body goes, Okay, it's
dark, no blue light, time tosleep, produce melatonin, sleep.
That's it, and that's what willactually happen.

(09:42):
Now, the next step, the mostimportant also, is when you wake
up.
Now, as soon as you wake up, nowI've spoken recently on podcasts
about actually treating yoursleeps on night shift as a nap.
Just have it as a nap.
And when you wake up, just getup.
But get out in the daylight.
Make sure that you are gettingsome form of daylight during the

(10:05):
day.
At least for 15 minutes, becausethat light exposure actually
signals daytime to your brain.
And what this will do isactually boost your alertness
for the shift ahead.
And also it triggers yourcircadian rhythm, it suppresses
the sleep hormones, and it firesup the cortisol and gets you up
and going for the day.

(10:26):
And this is exactly what wewant.
Now, these three things here areimperative ways of controlling
the way light hits our eyes.
This will help your body tomanage the confusion the
confusion of that circadiandisruption.
Strategy number two.
Now, this one is reallyimportant, and we're going to

(10:48):
talk about the breath reset forfatigue management.
Now, this second strategyleverages your body's emergency
break, your breath.
Long shifts, fatigue, and alsostress are going to keep your
nervous system in a constantstate of fight or flight.
And this is why you feel wired,but you're tired.

(11:09):
What you need is an immediateand fast tool for fatigue
management.
The best thing is you've got itright there on your face, right
in the middle, under your eyes,above your mouth.
It's sitting right there, yournose.
Now, as a breathworkfacilitator, I want you to try
this simple technique that youcan do very discreetly in a

(11:32):
locker room, in the bathroom, orin your car before or after your
shift on your way home.
I want you to imagine that youhave a balloon in your stomach
through the whole shift.
And if you continually fill thisballoon with air, like
continually filling it, it willgo bang.
So, what we need to do is weneed to exhale to release some

(11:56):
of the air out of this balloon.
And this is a signal to our bodythat we are calm, we are safe,
we are okay.
Now, the goal here is longer andslower exhale than an inhale.
Alright, so which this activatesyour body's calm system.
So this is what we do.
We inhale slowly through ournose for a count of four.

(12:20):
Then when we exhale, we exhalevery slowly through our mouth.
Imagine like you are blowing airout through a straw for a count
of six to eight.
Alright?
As long as you can counting out,and you will literally feel your
body starting to relax.
And not only that, but again,we're letting the air out of

(12:42):
that balloon in our stomach.
We have to continually do thisduring the day to make sure that
it actually happens.
Now I want you to do this simplebreath reset at least five
times.
Five times.
And notice how a tiny shift inyour breathing changes just how
alert or calm you feel.
This is incredibly powerful,trust me.

(13:05):
It's an instant tool for yournervous system regulation.
And you can use this on shift tomanage an acute stressor or
right before you get into bed tosignal to your body that it is
safe, it is calm, and we areable to sleep.
And I think this is one of theones that is really important
for us, okay?

(13:25):
Make sure that we are tellingour body that it is safe and it
is calm for sleep.
And breath work is what doesthis.
Now, I would highly recommendthat what you do is when you're
doing your inhale, put your handon your navel because it's
tactile, and breathe down andinto your hand.
Because what will happen is itwill you'll because your hand is

(13:48):
on your navel, you willliterally breathe down into that
hand, and it will make such adifference.
Exhaling slowly out through themouth.
We only breathe in through ournose, we breathe out through our
mouth as if we're blowing out,so through purse lips, as if
we've got a straw there, andwe're blowing out through a
straw.

(14:09):
Low and slow all the way.
Now you can do this five times,and you can literally do it
anywhere.
You can do it while you're onyour way to a job, you can do it
while you're on a break.
You can just take a few minutesto just step away and actually
do this, and you will get moreclarity in what you're doing,
and you will calm right on down.

(14:30):
This is really important, andthis is the key to making shift
work sustainable for you.
It's to stop trying to fightagainst your body and trying to
give it the specific signalsthat it actually needs, and this
will make a huge difference.
I know it seems simple.
Oh, it's not a diet roge.
Oh, it's not a supplement roge,oh, it's not an exercise roge.

(14:53):
No, it's simple controllinglight, which allows you to
control how your circadianrhythm let it know where it's at
in time and space, and then theother one is we are signaling to
our body that it is safe, andthis is really important.
Now you now have three clearscience-based strategies that

(15:15):
will help you to fight shiftwork sleep disorder, and it will
help you to manage your nightshift health risk by controlling
your light exposure, using yourbreath to reset, and focusing on
a sacred sleep environment.
They're very simple.
All three of these are very,very simple strategies.

(15:37):
So your homework this week issimple.
I just want you to pick one ofthem.
Just one.
That's all you gotta do.
Just pick one of thesestrategies.
Even if you just start with thebreathing, get yourself some
blue light blocking glasses andwear them on the drive home.
Just practice that breath reset.
When you get into bed, lie down,put your hand on your stomach,

(16:00):
another hand on your chest,breathe down into that hand for
four seconds, breathe outthrough purse lips, and you will
literally feel your bodycalming.
And because you're breathingdown into your stomach, feel
your digestive tract relaxing aswell.
Because if you are constantlystruggling with food and those 2
a.m.

(16:21):
vending machine cravings, youdon't want to miss the next
episode here.
This is where I, as an MNUcertified nutritionist, will
give you three simple practicalrules for night shift nutrition,
and that will stabilize yourenergy and protect your
metabolism.
So until then, what I want youto do is I want you to
prioritize that one strategy.

(16:42):
One strategy is all I'm askingyou to do, and then layer it on
like an onion.
Go back over it and listen tothe others.
I want you to do that, right?
Remember, you are not alone inthis fight.
I'll talk to you on the nextone.

(17:04):
Thank you for listening.
If you enjoyed this episode, besure to subscribe so you get
notified whenever a new episodeis released.
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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