December 11, 2025 • 22 mins
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We challenge the myth that you can flip your body clock and share a practical plan to work with biology instead of fighting it. Simple changes to food timing, light exposure, caffeine, sleep setup, and training can make night shifts survivable and your days off feel human again.
• Why nights never fully adapt to your rhythm
• Mistakes that ruin alertness and recovery
• Light management for alertness and sleep
• Meal timing and snack ideas that digest well
• The midnight caffeine cutoff and why it matters
• Building a dark, cool, quiet sleep space
• Nap tactics and realistic sleep targets
• When to train, when to deload, and why
• Blending science with lived experience for real-world wins
Book a free 15-minute one-to-one coaching assessment call with me. There’s a link in the show notes. Go and have a look at it, make the decision, and come in and have a chat with me.
----------------------------
ANNOUNCING
"The Shift Workers Collective"
https://join.ahealthyshift.com/the-shift-workers-collective
Click the link to learn all about it
-----------------------------
YOU CAN FIND ME AT
_____________________
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 (03:17):
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, and24-7 shift worker for almost
four decades.
Through this podcast, I aim toeducate shift workers using
evidence-based methods to notonly survive the rigors of shift
(03:40):
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.
You know who I am.
I'm Roger Sutherland, and I wantto say thank you very much to
(04:01):
you as we we're in December nowand we're kind of winding into
the Christmas period.
Now I won't be taking any timeoff at all.
I'm a shift worker and I'm veryused to just working right
through.
So I'm going to continue workingthrough and building some
momentum going into next year.
For you who may very well needme next year, because if you
(04:23):
can't get what I'm about to tellyou right, then you're going to
need my help because I can helpyou one-to-one.
So today I want to talk aboutsomething that every shift
worker has actually wrestledwith.
And I mean pretty much everyshift worker, and that is
managing the night shift.
I'm not going to give you thepolished version.
I'm not going to give you thetextbook version.
(04:44):
What I want to talk about iswhat actually happens at 2 a.m.
when you are fighting to stayalert.
And what I've learned overdecades of actually doing this,
and also using the principles ofwhat I learned during my towards
the end of my shift workingcareer and what I've actually
applied to clients with no ideaat all and the success that I've
(05:07):
had with that.
And I'm challenging a whole lotof the science with this because
that just literally doesn'tmatch real life.
You know that, I know that.
The researchers are doingamazing work.
Trust me, they are.
There's a lot of researchersthat are out there that are
really digging in and startingto do the best that they can
possibly do to help us, theshift worker.
(05:29):
Now, what they don't have isthey don't have the lived
experience.
And all of this research isgreat.
But what happens is it ends upjust sitting on the shelf in
journals getting dusty.
If we don't have someone like meout here that's actually
digesting what their researchhas told them and applying it
with a lived experience to makeit to massage it and get it to
(05:52):
work in a real life situation.
So let's get into it.
Shift workers don't live in alab.
What we do is we actually livein a real world, and let's be
brutally honest, shift workers.
You know it, the real world isincredibly messy.
So what I want to do is I wantto start right here, and I want
(06:15):
to make this clear.
Night shift is not somethingthat your body will ever fully
adapt to.
All right, now be keep be veryclear on this.
People repeat this idea that youcan flip your body clock or you
can train your circadian rhythm.
And no, it does not happen.
Your body clock is literallytied to light, and the sun will
(06:38):
always win.
Light will always win, no matterwhich way you cut it.
Even a permanent night shifter,they are still tied to the light
of the day because at some stageduring the day they're going to
get light and it's going toconfuse their body clock.
So once I accepted this,everything actually changed.
I stopped trying to fix my body,and what I did was I started
(07:02):
managing it instead.
And that is the shift that Iwant to give you today to help
you.
When I first started doingnights, I did what almost
everyone that starts doing nightshift does.
And this is the problem that Isee today.
There is no education.
Put your hand up.
In fact, I challenge you.
Reach out to me and you tell meif you got education and what
(07:28):
education you actually got inyour shift working life to
support you in how you canoptimize your life around shift
work.
Because if you actually got it,I want to hear what it was and
who the organization was.
Because I'm yet to find anorganization that satisfactorily
educates their staff in relationto how to go about doing shift
(07:50):
work.
But I've had some companiesreach out to me recently,
getting on the front foot withnew staff starting, that
actually they want to educatethem on how to go about it from
the word go.
And all kudos to those companiesbecause I'm telling you, that is
an investment in their future.
It's a really good investment aswell.
So what I used to do was when Ifirst started doing nights, I
(08:12):
did what everyone does.
I smashed coffee at the wrongtimes.
I need coffee to keep awake.
I ate heavy meals overnight.
I've told you before on thispodcast, I literally used to
make up a spaghetti bologneseand take it in and eat that with
a pasta sauce, a pasta, at threeo'clock in the morning.
Oh my God, if I any knew.
Anyway, I tried to sleep duringthe day with sunlight pouring in
(08:34):
through the blinds, and Itrained after night shift
because I thought, oh, well, atleast I'll be productive.
Or I would stop on the way homefrom night shift and actually go
and smash myself with an F-45 ora similar type of education
exercise.
My goodness me.
Anyway, then I wonder why Iactually felt wrecked.
Why was I so inflamed?
(08:54):
Why was I so swollen?
Why was I feeling even moretired?
And here's the truth I wasn'tdoing anything wrong for a lack
of effort, right?
What I was doing was what peoplethought actually made sense.
But I was fighting my biologyall the way through, every step
of the way.
And once I started coachingshift workers and I saw the same
patterns over and over again,like good people working really
(09:18):
hard, doing fantastic jobs,really highly stressful jobs,
but doing a fantastic thing.
What they were doing was justsimply using the wrong
strategies around it.
You can still get that exercise.
You can still get everythingdone that you need to get done,
but you just need to learn howto go about doing it the right
way.
Let's make this simple.
(09:39):
Overnight, your body goes intolow power mode.
Now you've literally watchedyour phone go into low power
mode where it reduces the screenbrightness, it shuts down
certain apps, it changes thedefinition of the screen, it
does all sorts of things.
Your body does exactly the samething overnight.
Your digestion slows down.
Your brain, it wants to sleepbecause it needs to detox.
(10:01):
Your hormones change completely,your temperature drops.
So when you push against all ofthat, what you're doing is you
actually confuse your body andyou hit a wall.
Now, this is not a motivationalissue.
What it is, it's actually abiology issue.
And that's why you can't justpush through fatigue and win.
And that's why you can'toutsmart your circadian rhythm.
(10:24):
But you can work with it.
And that's when things finallyimprove.
So let's just go through whatactually works and some
practical steps that I can helpyou with, just in a nutshell.
I want to walk you through whatactually works in the real world
because these are the thingsthat change my nights completely
and have helped hundreds ofshift workers that I've coached.
(10:44):
Number one, manage your meals.
Now keep in mind your digestionslows overnight.
So we need to keep those thatfood overnight light or just
really light snacks.
Think simple, easy to digest andsmall.
We don't have a full dinnerbetween 9 p.m.
and 6 a.m.
(11:04):
And what we do is we can savethat proper meal and have it
before we go in and then haveanother one afterwards and just
have something light, somethingsweet that we can have in the
middle of the night to just getus through and fuel us.
That's the first one.
Number one, manage your meals.
We do not want to be eatingovernight.
(11:25):
Even though you might be highlyactive, we don't eat overnight
because if we eat overnight,it's floating around our
bloodstream and it's going toend up being parked as body fat.
Number two, use your light toyour advantage.
Now your body clock is literallywatching for a particular
spectrum of light every singleday, and that's 480 nanometers,
(11:46):
and it is literally the color ofthat sky blue, and that's what
it's looking for.
So on your break during work orwhile you're at work, keep your
lights bright because what itdoes is it actually helps you to
stay alert.
But on the drive home, this iswhen we need to be protecting
ourselves.
This is when we want to bewearing those blue light
blocking glasses, not the onesthat you get at your local
(12:08):
optometrist.
You need to be getting properorange lens that block blue
light.
Okay, now you can go to mywebsite, ahealthyshift.com, and
then up the top is a menu itemwhich says resources, and under
there is recommended products.
I highly recommend you go andhave a look at the proper blue
(12:29):
light blocking glasses thatthere are there.
I have two companies that runthem, and you can go and have a
look at either of those and findwhat suits you best.
We need to reduce that lightexposure.
So what we do is we literallywear blue light blocking glasses
right up until we are in ourroom with our curtains closed in
the dark, take them off, put thesleep mask on, and we're done.
(12:52):
Now you might think that seemsridiculous, but this is what
gets you to sleep.
It's the light that's confusingyour body that you might think,
oh, I go to sleep, no problemsat all.
But the problem is you're stilldisrupting your circadian rhythm
and waking up.
And that is the problem.
So what we want to do is we wantto reduce that.
So what this does, reducinglight exposure, is it helps your
(13:13):
body to shift into that sleepmode sooner.
Number three is to build astrong sleep environment.
First of all, stand at yourdoor, look into your bedroom.
Does that look like the placethat I want to be?
Now, we don't do this when we'regetting home from night shift
and looking, go, does it?
Because of course it does.
You'd stand on your head in thecorner and sleep after night
shift.
But what you need is you needyour room dark, you need it
(13:36):
cool, and you need it quiet.
You need it tidy and clear andfree of clutter.
We want blackout curtains or aroller blind.
You ideally you should bewearing an eye mask when you're
on night shift sleeps.
An eye mask, super important.
Don't tell me it'suncomfortable, you can't.
Spend the money and get a decentone.
(13:57):
When you get a decent one, and Irecommend highly the Mantis
sleep mask.
And I would I've been using amantle sleep mask for many, many
years, and I absolutely love it.
The reason being is it's supercomfortable.
You can light it on the side,it's pitch black.
The difference that having aneye mask makes is massive.
(14:18):
And again, it's listed on myrecommended products page.
White noise.
White noise is something that isreally important.
It gives your brain something toactually focus on, and
subconsciously, your brainfocuses on the white noise and
it doesn't notice the hot waterservice clicking in and out, the
fridge clicking in and out.
It doesn't notice all of thosethings that are going on.
(14:40):
So it's not about tricking yourbody, it's about actually
removing the barriers that stopyou from falling asleep or
staying asleep.
We need to change, number four,is we need to change our
mentality around what we'retrying to do when we get home to
go to sleep.
My suggestion is, and this isfrom experience and coaching
(15:00):
clients, stop trying to think,oh, I've got to get eight hours
sleep or I'll be hopeless.
You must not take medications tosleep.
We don't medicate ourselves tosleep because we're not actually
sleeping.
We're unconscious.
Have you ever noticed that thepeople that take medications
that tell you they got eighthours are also the ones that are
hanging off the off the door ofthe car and they can't function
(15:24):
overnight at all.
They're always the ones fallingasleep.
It's because they haven't slept.
They'll tell you they have, butthey actually haven't.
They've been unconscious.
Now, this is really importantfor you to understand.
Change the anxiety of sleepingto try and get seven to nine
hours sleep to I'm just gonnanap and get up when I wake up
(15:45):
and then have another nap beforeyou go in.
Once you change your mentalityaround that, it makes an
enormous difference.
This is important because mostshift workers feel like failures
because they can't get thateight hours during the day.
You're not meant to.
You are not meant to sleepduring the day.
If you can just get three and ahalf hours or so of sleep, three
(16:09):
and a half, sorry, three to fourand a half hours of solid hours
sleep, it's actually a goodday's sleep.
Then if you need, you can have a30-minute nap later just to get
you through.
We want to get in and out ofnight shift quickly.
It's not about thriving onnights, it's about getting in
and out and getting back to ournormal life.
So stop beating yourself up forsomething that no human body
(16:30):
actually does well.
No one does well.
The next thing is we don't tradehard after a night shift, and
this is a really big one.
I know people want to beproductive, they've got goals
and they want to get there, butI will tell you this: if you're
training and doing resistancetraining on the way home from
night shift, you're actually notcashing in on the adaptations
from the training.
(16:50):
Your body is already stressed,it's high on cortisol, and
you're not actually getting anybenefit from the training that
you're doing.
You're wasting your time.
Go home, go to sleep, get asolid sleep, and get up and
train afterwards.
Pushing your body to train afterbeing awake all night just digs
a much deeper hole for you.
Avoid it.
(17:11):
It's not smart, it's not clever,and sending your coach photos
from the gym at seven o'clock inthe morning on the way home is
actually stupid.
And if anybody does that to me,I tell them to go the hell home
and get to bed because thatsleep is all important.
We don't train on the way home.
We don't even train hard whenwe're on night shift.
(17:32):
This is an opportunity for us todeload and actually just take it
easy.
Our body is stressed,everything's out of whack.
Hormonally, we're out of whack,and this is when we make and we
have injuries.
All right, this is when we needto be really, really careful.
So that's that.
Caffeine.
Caffeine timing really matters.
I've got a golden rule.
(17:53):
12 o'clock.
I don't care whether you're onday shift, afternoon shift, or
night shift, we cut caffeine at12 o'clock.
Which one, Rog?
Both.
We cut caffeine at midday whenwe're on day shift or afternoon
shift, and on night shift, wecut caffeine at midnight.
Use the caffeine early in yourshift, not late.
If you take it at 3 or 4 a.m.,then you're still gonna feel it
(18:16):
when you get home.
Now I I know what you're gonnasay.
Oh, yeah, but it doesn't affectmy sleep.
I can go to sleep, no problems.
Good one.
It still messes with your sleep,it is still disrupting that
adenosine receptor, right?
And what it does is it actuallyfloats around in your
bloodstream.
And as soon as that adenosine'sgone, that sleep pressure from
(18:37):
when you go to sleep, it fallsaway, and that caffeine in your
bloodstream just goes into theadenosine receptor and wakes you
up.
This is why people don't stayasleep.
It's the caffeine floatingaround in them.
Yeah, you go to sleep, but thecaffeine wakes you up.
12 o'clock rule, keep that onein mind.
I want you to bank your sleepbefore nights.
(18:57):
I've done a podcast on thisrecently.
You can't catch up on sleep, butby golly, you can absolutely
bank your sleep.
While you can't catch up on lostsleep, you can still go into
nights with extra sleep.
And a nap before your firstnight shift or a nap napping
between the nights is the way westart banking our sleep.
(19:18):
It's one of the best tools thatyou actually have in your kit
box.
As you're going into nightshifts, start getting to bed
earlier and start banking somesleep because you don't want to
go into night shift chronicallyfatigued to start off with
because you're already upagainst it.
Now that's seven tips.
These things might seem small,but they will all add up in a
(19:39):
very, very big way.
And this is where I want toactually challenge the science a
bit because a lot of research onnight shift is done in these
perfect lab conditions.
Control, it's quiet, it'spredictable, it's got routine.
Shift work isn't like that.
We deal with alarms, we've gotemergencies, staffing issues,
patients, offenders, conflict.
(19:59):
We've got constant uncertaintyand high stress.
So I take the science, and whatI do is I matched it with lived
experience, and that's where thereal answers lie, right there.
You can't beat that.
There's nobody else out therethat is actually doing what I do
with lived experience, actuallylooking at the science, reading
(20:20):
the research, understanding whatthe research is telling us, and
applying it into a real lifesituation that benefits all of
us.
And I'm even challenging whatthe research has told us, which
is actually going to beinvestigated as a hypothesis for
a research paper now.
Because I believe that we'redoing night shift all wrong, or
(20:42):
we have been, and my way is theabsolute best and optimal way.
Get in, get out as quickly asyou can, so you've got a quality
of life.
This is how I coach clients now,and what I do is I support them
with where they are actually at.
We need practical solutions thatliterally will hold up in the
(21:03):
real world, and that's what Iteach.
Not only that, this is why Icoach, because I know how to go
about doing it with people.
You can't copy a controlled labprotocol and expect it to work
at 3 a.m.
in a patrol car or in a hospitalward or on a mine site.
It doesn't work.
So let's just go through onemore thing before I wrap it up.
(21:26):
You need to stop beatingyourself up about night shift.
Just get in and get out asefficiently and as quickly as
you possibly can.
Night shift is really hard.
You're not weak for strugglingwith it.
You're actually human.
Because you're human, it's hard.
When you understand your body,and instead of fighting it, your
nights will actually get easier.
Your days off will feel better,and you'll get that life back
(21:50):
outside of your night shiftinglife.
And this is what I do withclients.
What I actually do with clientsis I want to give them more
energy to enjoy their days off,not just crawl from one shift to
the next.
And if you don't believe me,challenge me.
I will help you with this.
(22:11):
So if you're struggling with anight shift and you would like
support in relation to whatmatches your life, your social
life, your home life, and yourshift working life, then book a
free 15-minute one-to-onecoaching assessment call with
me.
There's a link in the shownotes.
Go and have a look at it, makethe decision, and come in and
(22:33):
have a chat with me.
I'm here to help you.
It doesn't matter where you arein the world or what you're
doing.
I will coach you along theselines and help you with it.
I'll show you how we can build aplan that works for your roster,
that works for your fatigue,that works for your lifestyle,
so that you can actually startto enjoy your days off again.
So, what I want to do on theback of that is I want to say
(22:55):
thank you so much for listeningto this episode.
I want you to take care ofyourself.
I don't want you to be hard onyourself.
I want you to just get in andget out of that night shift so
that you can enjoy your lifeoutside of it.
The more time you spend tryingto adapt to night shift, the
less time you're going to be.
You get on your days off.
I'll talk to you in the nextepisode.
(23:20):
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.
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, and24-7 shift worker for almost
four decades.
Through this podcast, I aim toeducate shift workers using
evidence-based methods to notonly survive the rigors of shift
(03:40):
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.
You know who I am.
I'm Roger Sutherland, and I wantto say thank you very much to
(04:01):
you as we we're in December nowand we're kind of winding into
the Christmas period.
Now I won't be taking any timeoff at all.
I'm a shift worker and I'm veryused to just working right
through.
So I'm going to continue workingthrough and building some
momentum going into next year.
For you who may very well needme next year, because if you
(04:23):
can't get what I'm about to tellyou right, then you're going to
need my help because I can helpyou one-to-one.
So today I want to talk aboutsomething that every shift
worker has actually wrestledwith.
And I mean pretty much everyshift worker, and that is
managing the night shift.
I'm not going to give you thepolished version.
I'm not going to give you thetextbook version.
(04:44):
What I want to talk about iswhat actually happens at 2 a.m.
when you are fighting to stayalert.
And what I've learned overdecades of actually doing this,
and also using the principles ofwhat I learned during my towards
the end of my shift workingcareer and what I've actually
applied to clients with no ideaat all and the success that I've
(05:07):
had with that.
And I'm challenging a whole lotof the science with this because
that just literally doesn'tmatch real life.
You know that, I know that.
The researchers are doingamazing work.
Trust me, they are.
There's a lot of researchersthat are out there that are
really digging in and startingto do the best that they can
possibly do to help us, theshift worker.
(05:29):
Now, what they don't have isthey don't have the lived
experience.
And all of this research isgreat.
But what happens is it ends upjust sitting on the shelf in
journals getting dusty.
If we don't have someone like meout here that's actually
digesting what their researchhas told them and applying it
with a lived experience to makeit to massage it and get it to
(05:52):
work in a real life situation.
So let's get into it.
Shift workers don't live in alab.
What we do is we actually livein a real world, and let's be
brutally honest, shift workers.
You know it, the real world isincredibly messy.
So what I want to do is I wantto start right here, and I want
(06:15):
to make this clear.
Night shift is not somethingthat your body will ever fully
adapt to.
All right, now be keep be veryclear on this.
People repeat this idea that youcan flip your body clock or you
can train your circadian rhythm.
And no, it does not happen.
Your body clock is literallytied to light, and the sun will
(06:38):
always win.
Light will always win, no matterwhich way you cut it.
Even a permanent night shifter,they are still tied to the light
of the day because at some stageduring the day they're going to
get light and it's going toconfuse their body clock.
So once I accepted this,everything actually changed.
I stopped trying to fix my body,and what I did was I started
(07:02):
managing it instead.
And that is the shift that Iwant to give you today to help
you.
When I first started doingnights, I did what almost
everyone that starts doing nightshift does.
And this is the problem that Isee today.
There is no education.
Put your hand up.
In fact, I challenge you.
Reach out to me and you tell meif you got education and what
(07:28):
education you actually got inyour shift working life to
support you in how you canoptimize your life around shift
work.
Because if you actually got it,I want to hear what it was and
who the organization was.
Because I'm yet to find anorganization that satisfactorily
educates their staff in relationto how to go about doing shift
(07:50):
work.
But I've had some companiesreach out to me recently,
getting on the front foot withnew staff starting, that
actually they want to educatethem on how to go about it from
the word go.
And all kudos to those companiesbecause I'm telling you, that is
an investment in their future.
It's a really good investment aswell.
So what I used to do was when Ifirst started doing nights, I
(08:12):
did what everyone does.
I smashed coffee at the wrongtimes.
I need coffee to keep awake.
I ate heavy meals overnight.
I've told you before on thispodcast, I literally used to
make up a spaghetti bologneseand take it in and eat that with
a pasta sauce, a pasta, at threeo'clock in the morning.
Oh my God, if I any knew.
Anyway, I tried to sleep duringthe day with sunlight pouring in
(08:34):
through the blinds, and Itrained after night shift
because I thought, oh, well, atleast I'll be productive.
Or I would stop on the way homefrom night shift and actually go
and smash myself with an F-45 ora similar type of education
exercise.
My goodness me.
Anyway, then I wonder why Iactually felt wrecked.
Why was I so inflamed?
(08:54):
Why was I so swollen?
Why was I feeling even moretired?
And here's the truth I wasn'tdoing anything wrong for a lack
of effort, right?
What I was doing was what peoplethought actually made sense.
But I was fighting my biologyall the way through, every step
of the way.
And once I started coachingshift workers and I saw the same
patterns over and over again,like good people working really
(09:18):
hard, doing fantastic jobs,really highly stressful jobs,
but doing a fantastic thing.
What they were doing was justsimply using the wrong
strategies around it.
You can still get that exercise.
You can still get everythingdone that you need to get done,
but you just need to learn howto go about doing it the right
way.
Let's make this simple.
(09:39):
Overnight, your body goes intolow power mode.
Now you've literally watchedyour phone go into low power
mode where it reduces the screenbrightness, it shuts down
certain apps, it changes thedefinition of the screen, it
does all sorts of things.
Your body does exactly the samething overnight.
Your digestion slows down.
Your brain, it wants to sleepbecause it needs to detox.
(10:01):
Your hormones change completely,your temperature drops.
So when you push against all ofthat, what you're doing is you
actually confuse your body andyou hit a wall.
Now, this is not a motivationalissue.
What it is, it's actually abiology issue.
And that's why you can't justpush through fatigue and win.
And that's why you can'toutsmart your circadian rhythm.
(10:24):
But you can work with it.
And that's when things finallyimprove.
So let's just go through whatactually works and some
practical steps that I can helpyou with, just in a nutshell.
I want to walk you through whatactually works in the real world
because these are the thingsthat change my nights completely
and have helped hundreds ofshift workers that I've coached.
(10:44):
Number one, manage your meals.
Now keep in mind your digestionslows overnight.
So we need to keep those thatfood overnight light or just
really light snacks.
Think simple, easy to digest andsmall.
We don't have a full dinnerbetween 9 p.m.
and 6 a.m.
(11:04):
And what we do is we can savethat proper meal and have it
before we go in and then haveanother one afterwards and just
have something light, somethingsweet that we can have in the
middle of the night to just getus through and fuel us.
That's the first one.
Number one, manage your meals.
We do not want to be eatingovernight.
(11:25):
Even though you might be highlyactive, we don't eat overnight
because if we eat overnight,it's floating around our
bloodstream and it's going toend up being parked as body fat.
Number two, use your light toyour advantage.
Now your body clock is literallywatching for a particular
spectrum of light every singleday, and that's 480 nanometers,
(11:46):
and it is literally the color ofthat sky blue, and that's what
it's looking for.
So on your break during work orwhile you're at work, keep your
lights bright because what itdoes is it actually helps you to
stay alert.
But on the drive home, this iswhen we need to be protecting
ourselves.
This is when we want to bewearing those blue light
blocking glasses, not the onesthat you get at your local
(12:08):
optometrist.
You need to be getting properorange lens that block blue
light.
Okay, now you can go to mywebsite, ahealthyshift.com, and
then up the top is a menu itemwhich says resources, and under
there is recommended products.
I highly recommend you go andhave a look at the proper blue
(12:29):
light blocking glasses thatthere are there.
I have two companies that runthem, and you can go and have a
look at either of those and findwhat suits you best.
We need to reduce that lightexposure.
So what we do is we literallywear blue light blocking glasses
right up until we are in ourroom with our curtains closed in
the dark, take them off, put thesleep mask on, and we're done.
(12:52):
Now you might think that seemsridiculous, but this is what
gets you to sleep.
It's the light that's confusingyour body that you might think,
oh, I go to sleep, no problemsat all.
But the problem is you're stilldisrupting your circadian rhythm
and waking up.
And that is the problem.
So what we want to do is we wantto reduce that.
So what this does, reducinglight exposure, is it helps your
(13:13):
body to shift into that sleepmode sooner.
Number three is to build astrong sleep environment.
First of all, stand at yourdoor, look into your bedroom.
Does that look like the placethat I want to be?
Now, we don't do this when we'regetting home from night shift
and looking, go, does it?
Because of course it does.
You'd stand on your head in thecorner and sleep after night
shift.
But what you need is you needyour room dark, you need it
(13:36):
cool, and you need it quiet.
You need it tidy and clear andfree of clutter.
We want blackout curtains or aroller blind.
You ideally you should bewearing an eye mask when you're
on night shift sleeps.
An eye mask, super important.
Don't tell me it'suncomfortable, you can't.
Spend the money and get a decentone.
(13:57):
When you get a decent one, and Irecommend highly the Mantis
sleep mask.
And I would I've been using amantle sleep mask for many, many
years, and I absolutely love it.
The reason being is it's supercomfortable.
You can light it on the side,it's pitch black.
The difference that having aneye mask makes is massive.
(14:18):
And again, it's listed on myrecommended products page.
White noise.
White noise is something that isreally important.
It gives your brain something toactually focus on, and
subconsciously, your brainfocuses on the white noise and
it doesn't notice the hot waterservice clicking in and out, the
fridge clicking in and out.
It doesn't notice all of thosethings that are going on.
(14:40):
So it's not about tricking yourbody, it's about actually
removing the barriers that stopyou from falling asleep or
staying asleep.
We need to change, number four,is we need to change our
mentality around what we'retrying to do when we get home to
go to sleep.
My suggestion is, and this isfrom experience and coaching
(15:00):
clients, stop trying to think,oh, I've got to get eight hours
sleep or I'll be hopeless.
You must not take medications tosleep.
We don't medicate ourselves tosleep because we're not actually
sleeping.
We're unconscious.
Have you ever noticed that thepeople that take medications
that tell you they got eighthours are also the ones that are
hanging off the off the door ofthe car and they can't function
(15:24):
overnight at all.
They're always the ones fallingasleep.
It's because they haven't slept.
They'll tell you they have, butthey actually haven't.
They've been unconscious.
Now, this is really importantfor you to understand.
Change the anxiety of sleepingto try and get seven to nine
hours sleep to I'm just gonnanap and get up when I wake up
(15:45):
and then have another nap beforeyou go in.
Once you change your mentalityaround that, it makes an
enormous difference.
This is important because mostshift workers feel like failures
because they can't get thateight hours during the day.
You're not meant to.
You are not meant to sleepduring the day.
If you can just get three and ahalf hours or so of sleep, three
(16:09):
and a half, sorry, three to fourand a half hours of solid hours
sleep, it's actually a goodday's sleep.
Then if you need, you can have a30-minute nap later just to get
you through.
We want to get in and out ofnight shift quickly.
It's not about thriving onnights, it's about getting in
and out and getting back to ournormal life.
So stop beating yourself up forsomething that no human body
(16:30):
actually does well.
No one does well.
The next thing is we don't tradehard after a night shift, and
this is a really big one.
I know people want to beproductive, they've got goals
and they want to get there, butI will tell you this: if you're
training and doing resistancetraining on the way home from
night shift, you're actually notcashing in on the adaptations
from the training.
(16:50):
Your body is already stressed,it's high on cortisol, and
you're not actually getting anybenefit from the training that
you're doing.
You're wasting your time.
Go home, go to sleep, get asolid sleep, and get up and
train afterwards.
Pushing your body to train afterbeing awake all night just digs
a much deeper hole for you.
Avoid it.
(17:11):
It's not smart, it's not clever,and sending your coach photos
from the gym at seven o'clock inthe morning on the way home is
actually stupid.
And if anybody does that to me,I tell them to go the hell home
and get to bed because thatsleep is all important.
We don't train on the way home.
We don't even train hard whenwe're on night shift.
(17:32):
This is an opportunity for us todeload and actually just take it
easy.
Our body is stressed,everything's out of whack.
Hormonally, we're out of whack,and this is when we make and we
have injuries.
All right, this is when we needto be really, really careful.
So that's that.
Caffeine.
Caffeine timing really matters.
I've got a golden rule.
(17:53):
12 o'clock.
I don't care whether you're onday shift, afternoon shift, or
night shift, we cut caffeine at12 o'clock.
Which one, Rog?
Both.
We cut caffeine at midday whenwe're on day shift or afternoon
shift, and on night shift, wecut caffeine at midnight.
Use the caffeine early in yourshift, not late.
If you take it at 3 or 4 a.m.,then you're still gonna feel it
(18:16):
when you get home.
Now I I know what you're gonnasay.
Oh, yeah, but it doesn't affectmy sleep.
I can go to sleep, no problems.
Good one.
It still messes with your sleep,it is still disrupting that
adenosine receptor, right?
And what it does is it actuallyfloats around in your
bloodstream.
And as soon as that adenosine'sgone, that sleep pressure from
(18:37):
when you go to sleep, it fallsaway, and that caffeine in your
bloodstream just goes into theadenosine receptor and wakes you
up.
This is why people don't stayasleep.
It's the caffeine floatingaround in them.
Yeah, you go to sleep, but thecaffeine wakes you up.
12 o'clock rule, keep that onein mind.
I want you to bank your sleepbefore nights.
(18:57):
I've done a podcast on thisrecently.
You can't catch up on sleep, butby golly, you can absolutely
bank your sleep.
While you can't catch up on lostsleep, you can still go into
nights with extra sleep.
And a nap before your firstnight shift or a nap napping
between the nights is the way westart banking our sleep.
(19:18):
It's one of the best tools thatyou actually have in your kit
box.
As you're going into nightshifts, start getting to bed
earlier and start banking somesleep because you don't want to
go into night shift chronicallyfatigued to start off with
because you're already upagainst it.
Now that's seven tips.
These things might seem small,but they will all add up in a
(19:39):
very, very big way.
And this is where I want toactually challenge the science a
bit because a lot of research onnight shift is done in these
perfect lab conditions.
Control, it's quiet, it'spredictable, it's got routine.
Shift work isn't like that.
We deal with alarms, we've gotemergencies, staffing issues,
patients, offenders, conflict.
(19:59):
We've got constant uncertaintyand high stress.
So I take the science, and whatI do is I matched it with lived
experience, and that's where thereal answers lie, right there.
You can't beat that.
There's nobody else out therethat is actually doing what I do
with lived experience, actuallylooking at the science, reading
(20:20):
the research, understanding whatthe research is telling us, and
applying it into a real lifesituation that benefits all of
us.
And I'm even challenging whatthe research has told us, which
is actually going to beinvestigated as a hypothesis for
a research paper now.
Because I believe that we'redoing night shift all wrong, or
(20:42):
we have been, and my way is theabsolute best and optimal way.
Get in, get out as quickly asyou can, so you've got a quality
of life.
This is how I coach clients now,and what I do is I support them
with where they are actually at.
We need practical solutions thatliterally will hold up in the
(21:03):
real world, and that's what Iteach.
Not only that, this is why Icoach, because I know how to go
about doing it with people.
You can't copy a controlled labprotocol and expect it to work
at 3 a.m.
in a patrol car or in a hospitalward or on a mine site.
It doesn't work.
So let's just go through onemore thing before I wrap it up.
(21:26):
You need to stop beatingyourself up about night shift.
Just get in and get out asefficiently and as quickly as
you possibly can.
Night shift is really hard.
You're not weak for strugglingwith it.
You're actually human.
Because you're human, it's hard.
When you understand your body,and instead of fighting it, your
nights will actually get easier.
Your days off will feel better,and you'll get that life back
(21:50):
outside of your night shiftinglife.
And this is what I do withclients.
What I actually do with clientsis I want to give them more
energy to enjoy their days off,not just crawl from one shift to
the next.
And if you don't believe me,challenge me.
I will help you with this.
(22:11):
So if you're struggling with anight shift and you would like
support in relation to whatmatches your life, your social
life, your home life, and yourshift working life, then book a
free 15-minute one-to-onecoaching assessment call with
me.
There's a link in the shownotes.
Go and have a look at it, makethe decision, and come in and
(22:33):
have a chat with me.
I'm here to help you.
It doesn't matter where you arein the world or what you're
doing.
I will coach you along theselines and help you with it.
I'll show you how we can build aplan that works for your roster,
that works for your fatigue,that works for your lifestyle,
so that you can actually startto enjoy your days off again.
So, what I want to do on theback of that is I want to say
(22:55):
thank you so much for listeningto this episode.
I want you to take care ofyourself.
I don't want you to be hard onyourself.
I want you to just get in andget out of that night shift so
that you can enjoy your lifeoutside of it.
The more time you spend tryingto adapt to night shift, the
less time you're going to be.
You get on your days off.
I'll talk to you in the nextepisode.
(23:20):
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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