May 7, 2025 • 39 mins
Send us a message (& include the best way to reach you)
What happens when your work schedule runs opposite to the natural rhythms of the world? In this illuminating conversation, Laura Timbrook—international speaker, board-certified health coach, and the definitive expert in shift worker wellness—reveals the hidden health challenges facing those who work outside traditional hours and provides actionable solutions that actually work.
Laura draws from over a decade of experience transforming how businesses approach health for shift workers, sharing why conventional wellness advice often fails those working nights or rotating schedules. The digestive system functions differently at 2 AM versus 2 PM, even for veteran night shift workers. Sleep patterns, nutrition needs, and exercise requirements all demand specialized approaches that acknowledge biological realities.
Most alarming is the World Health Organization's classification of shift work as a "probable carcinogen," with research showing shift workers face a 60% higher risk of diabetes and consistently get 2-4 fewer hours of sleep than day workers. Yet Laura emphasizes that health optimization remains possible through targeted strategies and mindset shifts.
The conversation tackles common misconceptions about shift work health, explores practical solutions like two-meal eating patterns versus three traditional meals, and discusses how both organizations and individuals can mitigate health risks. For rotating shift workers facing constantly changing schedules, Laura reveals techniques to find patterns within chaos and establish health routines that actually stick.
Whether you're navigating shift work yourself, supporting team members with unconventional schedules, or simply interested in understanding how circadian disruption affects health, this episode provides eye-opening insights and practical tools to protect wellbeing when working against the clock. Download Laura's free night shift guide at lauratimbrook.com/nightshift to start implementing these strategies today.
As a token of gratitude, of course you’re interested in these FREE and powerful resources, and because you enjoy the show, be sure to leave your 5-STAR Review HERE!
>Join From The Heart: Your feel good feed packed with inspiring stories, wellness tips, and expert insights. Let’s recharge your energy, balance your vibes, and celebrate YOU every Sunday morning.
> You might be wondering just how full your Toxin-Tank may be: Take your FREE Toxicity Assessment to find out - no email required!
> You’ll discover a new level of self, after your FREE 2-Part audio training for Confidence!
> Love to Read? You can lean more about Integrative Health on our Blog
> I know you’re concerned about your future. Schedule your FREE Consultation with Jeffrey
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What if your health didn't have to take a backseat
just because your schedule runsopposite of the world's?
This week, on BreakingBoundaries for Entrepreneurs,
I'm sitting down with LauraTimbrook, international speaker,
board-certified health coachand the go-to expert in shift
worker wellness.
She spent over a decadetransforming how businesses and
(00:23):
individuals approach healthoutside the 9-to-5 model, and
her insights are nothing shortof eye-opening.
Whether you're a night owlentrepreneur juggling multiple
roles or supporting clients withunconventional schedules, this
episode is packed with real talk, science-backed strategies and
powerful mindset shifts.
(00:43):
Real talk, science-backedstrategies and powerful mindset
shifts.
And, yes, we talk about whyshift happens and how to thrive.
Anyway, Be sure to stay tillthe end to get your free night
shift guide from Laura.
Let's go.
Hello, I'm Jeffrey Mort.
If you're like mostentrepreneurs, you're busy
taking care of business, yetwho's taking care of you?
(01:04):
If you're ready to take yourenergy and performance to the
next level in your taking careof business yet who's taking
care of you?
If you're ready to take yourenergy and performance to the
next level in your life and yourbusiness, then this podcast is
for you, Because today you'regoing to start breaking
boundaries of your mind, bodyand business with integrative
health, and when you do that,your possibilities are limitless
.
I'm grateful you're here, Laura.
(01:28):
Thank you so much for joiningus on the breaking boundaries
for entrepreneurs podcast.
How are you today?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I'm awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Thank you so much for having me on yeah, wonderful,
wonderful thanks for taking thetime to to join us today and
share some of your wisdom aboutbeing able to support shift
workers.
So tell the audience how iscoaching shift workers a little
bit different from coachingtraditional nine to five clients
?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, one of the biggest things and I never
realized this when I startedfirst going into a lot of
corporate wellness.
But one of the things whenwe're in corporate wellness and
we're dealing with a lot of nineto fives, we don't really
understand those barriers of Ican't go to bed same time every
night, or what do you knowbreakfast, lunch and dinner
really look like when you worknight shift.
(02:13):
But when you start coachingthese individuals, you realize a
lot of times what we talk aboutmainstream health and wellness
advice, going to bed atconsistent time every night, you
know, being mindful of our mealtiming and prioritizing protein
all great advice.
But what does that look like onthe flip side of the day?
What does that look like whenyou know 10 o'clock is the time
(02:36):
that we're maybe having a cup ofcoffee before we're going into
work to start at maybe 11 pm ormidnight?
You know what does that meanwhen we get off of work at 6 am.
So it's really this dichotomyand a lot of times as coaches,
we would often say, well, justflip the schedule around.
It's not as easy as flipping theschedule around, because one of
(02:59):
the biggest issues that we seeis our digestive systems when
we're 2 o'clock in the afternoon, our digestive system is kind
of at its height.
Two o'clock in the morning, ourdigestive system, even though
that's the middle of our quoteunquote day, our digestive
system is still not at its max.
(03:20):
So if we were to have ahamburger at two o'clock in the
afternoon and we had a hamburgerat two o'clock in the morning,
even though that's the start ofour day, it's still not going to
break down the same.
The whole thing changes.
And then we have issues withrelationships and sleep.
It's just, it's so much morethan I ever imagined when I
(03:43):
first started coaching the shiftworking professionals.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
I can only imagine it's got tobe a completely different
dynamic to be able to make thoseadjustments for people.
And so talk a little bit about,you know, the shift workers
that have a consistent, likethey've been working third shift
for 20 years and then that'sjust their lifestyle compared to
the shift workers like, um, youknow, in my practice I've had
(04:08):
firefighters that do a rotatingshift, so sometimes they work,
you know, three 12-hour days, um, and then they go back to their
you know, quote unquote normallife.
Uh, and talk a little bit aboutthat and what you see and how
that affects it.
You know, is it harder to workwith those people or easier to
work with those people that arelike half in and half out of
that shift work?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, I think you're absolutely right.
Rotating shifts is one of thehardest, not only to work with,
but the hardest for them toreally understand how they need
to be eating, sleeping, managingrelationships, all those you
know pillars of health that weso often talk about.
One of the interesting factorsis is our bodies, our brains, we
(04:53):
like repetition, we likepatterns.
So one of the things that weneed to do is kind of figure out
patterns within that chaos.
What can we do to allow them toif they can't sleep?
We'll use sleep as an example,because this is usually a big
one For someone that works thirdshift and they've done it for
(05:14):
one year, 30 years they prettymuch have an understanding of
okay, this is where I have tostart getting ready to go to bed
, this is what you know.
They have a routine.
Getting ready to go to bed thisis what you know.
They have a routine.
Rotating shift workers routine.
Their routine is there is noroutine.
So really, with this, we'rereally kind of massaging and
(05:37):
trying to figure out how we canmanage things a little bit
better.
Sleep, like we were saying, canbe really difficult because
with sleep, how do you get sevento nine hours of sleep when
you're sleeping one day and thenthe next day you're maybe
sleeping a few hours laterbecause you're rotating from day
shift to night shift.
Now this is where kind ofunderstanding those patterns
(05:58):
come in, because some night somerotating shifters, they'll have
a week off, they'll have a fewdays off, maybe two or three
days.
So it's really preparing thatbody for that change.
So one of the easiest ways todo it is find the pattern
amongst the chaos, essentially,if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, it absolutely does.
And then what do you do onceyou find that pattern?
Do you work to optimize, likework with what you have and
optimize those sweet spots inthat pattern?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Absolutely.
As health coaches, we oftenhear people say you got to meet
the client where they're at.
This is the prime example ofmeeting the client where they're
at.
You know, we often talk aboutsleep being optimal at seven to
nine hours.
What if seven to nine hoursisn't even feasible in the first
, let's say phase of all of this?
(06:48):
We know, eventually gettingthem there would be great if at
all possible, because you made areally good point firefighters.
So we see this a lot ofemergency response.
And I'll even go one level bysaying skilled trades are
another big area where thishappens.
What about those 36-hour shifts?
(07:09):
No one talks about these andyet we see them amongst first
responders, we see them inhealth care workers.
I have a guy that is a unionelectrician 36 hours, you know.
Granted, they're not commonshifts, but they do exist.
So if we're meeting clientswhere they're at and we have
(07:31):
this expectation of what healthlooks like, we need to let go of
what our expectation of healthlooks like and focus on moving
that needle forward.
How can we be you know, jamesClear says it 1% better.
How do we be 1% better?
And I think that's one of thebiggest things as health and
wellness professionals is that?
(07:52):
You know, we got to let go ofour own biases when it comes to
some things and realize it's notgoing to be perfect.
But is there something we cando?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Absolutely, and you know, just sharing that client
story you're bringing me back.
I know firsthand exactly whatthat was like.
I worked for one of thenation's top electrical
contractors as a foreman andsometimes we would have to
adjust our shifts.
Sometimes you would do a dayshift during the week and then
go to a couple of nights andthen back to a day shift.
(08:22):
And going way back before Ieven owned my my electrical
contracting business, uh, therewas a time when I worked for
another contractor that we weredoing um it, it just it's
frustrating to even say it wewere doing seven, 12 hour shifts
and the commute was an hour anda half.
(08:42):
So we were driving three hoursround trip, doing 712s for, you
know, months at a stretch, andit was total zombie land, like
you know, working around heavy,heavy equipment, operating, you
know, operating equipment,working with live electricity.
It was so dangerous and youknow I could, I could feel the
(09:03):
detriment.
I didn't know if I was comingor going, I didn't know if it
was day or night and I was just,I was so fatigued and burnt out
, I couldn't focus, I couldn'tconcentrate and it was just so
dangerous.
But in the name of profit, wekept pushing on, and that's you
know.
So that kind of leads me to acouple of other questions.
What does?
(09:26):
And I knew when I was doingthis, I knew it wasn't healthy
for me.
I can feel it in every cell ofmy body that this is not leading
me in the right direction andit's going to take a lot of
course correcting to be able tounwind the damage that I'm doing
to my body, the actual physicalcellular damage.
Even back before I was a healthcoach, I knew this, I could
just feel it.
Back before I was a healthcoach, I knew this, I could just
(09:47):
feel it.
So you know what.
What can you share?
And what does you know the theglobal health authorities say
about shift work and thedetriment that that does to our
health?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Oh man.
Well, there's a few things here.
So if we look at the statisticswhen it comes to rotating
shifters and we're going tofocus on for a minute for
rotating shifters so two to fourhours less sleep than the
average day shifter.
So if we know, folks are onlygetting about five to six hours
of sleep, two to four less thanthat for a rotating shift worker
(10:19):
.
On average, I could tell youwhen I work with rotating shift
workers we're about four to fivehours of sleep.
So it's like, okay, we alreadyknow there's that.
We look at diabetes 60% increasein diabetes between rotating
shifters and day shift.
So from the health, we knowthis is all here.
(10:50):
Now, what does that all meanwhen we break it apart?
Well, a lot of times when we'relooking at stuff like diabetes,
we can look at diet.
You know, a lot of timesrotating shift workers don't
have the best diet.
What's open at two o'clock inthe morning when you haven't
packed?
We talk about health andwellness and we talk about just
(11:11):
buy healthier foods, makehealthier options.
For a lot of these folks it'snot that simple.
It's not as simple as you know,being able to hit a Whole Foods
.
We also have to understand isthat a lot of the time, the
environments we live in don'texist in the environments they
(11:31):
live in.
So let's take someone thatmight live in northern Texas,
western Oklahoma.
There's not a lot out there, sobeing able to find a Whole
foods might not even be possible, where a lot of their stuff is
coming from walmart.
So what is food that we'relooking at?
(11:53):
And then on top of there,there's a flip side not a lot of
them have time to prep.
Think about what, back when youwere working, would you have
had any time to meal prep?
Even if it was a priority, itwould be exactly.
It would be almost impossible.
So what are the simple thingsthat we can do to make it easy
and I think that's what we haveto start doing is trying to find
(12:14):
not the perfect solutions, justsomething a little bit better.
We did a workshop on gasstation nutrition in a couple of
our facilities that we wereworking in and that was really
mind opening, really learningwhat they would normally grab
and what we could grab.
So it's kind of again meetingthem where they're at what's
(12:37):
available, not always justtalking about what's perfect.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Yeah, absolutely, gas station nutrition.
That's funny because I lived itfor years and now that you know
I'm where, I am in the healthcoaching space and I have three
teenagers and when they say, hey, can we stop at the gas station
for some food, and I alwayslaugh and joke with them saying
there is no food at the gasstation.
(13:01):
There is no food there.
Maybe you'll find a banana oran apple or something along
those lines, and that's probably, you know, the best thing in
there is a bottle of water andsome, hopefully fresh fruit to
be able to, you know, give thebody the nutrients that it needs
.
So, on the aspect of health andthe seriousness of shift work,
(13:22):
can you share a little bit aboutthe position of the World
Health Organization on shiftwork?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
So, yeah, the interesting thing is, when we
were looking at the World HealthOrganization, this is kind of
something that jarred me andreally made me realize how
detrimental this is.
So when we look at it, it'sreally the World Health
Organization has actuallyrecognized shift work as a
(13:50):
carcinogenic and not a possiblecarcinogenic, saying it may or
may not happen.
They use the word probable.
That, to me, kind of reallywoke me up and it's like that to
me kind of really woke me upand it's like we understand the
detriments of this and we don'ttalk about it.
And I'll be honest with you,I'm not on the side of we
(14:12):
shouldn't do it.
I'm on the side of health andwellness professionals.
How can we stack the cards intheir favor?
Because here's the crazy thing,and this was something that
when I first started gettinginto really understanding shift
worker, I always thought peoplehave worked shifts because they
had to.
And it's interesting, when Iwas in corporate wellness, we
(14:34):
would often talk about um, oh,the term just left my mind Um,
it'll come to me in a second,it's right there, I can feel it.
Purpose we always talk aboutpurpose and in corporate
wellness, we're always talkingabout the need to find purpose.
(14:56):
When we work with our shiftworkers, so many of them have
purpose.
They knew they were going to bea doctor.
They knew they were going to bea firefighter.
They knew they wanted to be adiesel mechanic.
They love what they do.
So how do we tell them, eventhough you love what you do,
(15:16):
it's not good for you and stopit?
That's not healthy.
And here's the other crazy part.
I always thought people workednight shifts because they had to
.
Yet when I started working withnight shifters, there are some
of them that would rather not,but there's also a really large
population that love it.
One guy said to me he goes, hecould never be a day walker.
(15:39):
That's what night shift workerscall us that work during the
day that they could never be aday walker.
They love their job.
It's just trying to kind ofmake the puzzle pieces all fit,
and I think that's something weneed to look at, not telling
them they have to get a new jobor they have to work standard
shifts, because some people, ascrazy as it is, they like the
(15:59):
rotating shifts.
So what can we do as wellnessprofessionals, as organizations,
to support them a little bitbetter, to help reduce the rates
of cancer and cardiovasculardisease and metabolic conditions
.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Yeah, sure, and you know the the mindset of of those
night walkers, we'll call them.
You know there were some, somebenefits that I could.
I could see and feel for thatwhen I was working, not even,
you know, complete night shift,but you know had to be in at an
earlier hour, so maybe you knowmy commute would start at three,
34 o'clock in the morning.
(16:35):
There's no traffic on the road.
You breeze in in three quartersof the time, so it's much
easier.
The rest of the world issleeping when you work in a
night shift.
So your phone's not ringing,your email's not pinging, you
know you're, you're not havingall of those distractions,
people aren't bothering you,especially when we were doing
retrofits in a store, forinstance, back in the day we
(16:58):
were doing relamps and BJ'swholesales.
Nobody's in the store, so youhave the whole place for
yourself.
The workflow is more efficient,but to the detriment of the
health.
I'm just curious.
From my position I knew that itwasn't healthy for me and,
honestly, ultimately that's whatpulled me out of that industry
was my health got so bad that Ijust couldn't.
(17:18):
I couldn't perform the workanymore and I couldn't do that.
And that was, of course, thanksto ending up with COVID and I
went into health coaching fulltime after I healed myself.
But I'm curious if you've everhad a client.
Now, I know you wouldn't tellsomebody that they need to like
quit their job, but have youever had somebody realize on
(17:43):
their own accord that their jobwas so unhealthy that it was
like a losing battle and theirhealth was going to keep
declining so that they chose tochange their job and get their
circadian rhythm back?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, and I think that absolutely it's a difficult
conversation to have.
Most of the time, like you said, they know, they know and they
don't see the flip side of that.
What would life look like?
What are some possibilities?
As we're kind of utilizing somebrainstorming, what would it
look like, you know, would a dayjob work for them?
(18:15):
Or maybe we're looking atchanging the industry.
Having that conversation, thereare some folks that just don't
adapt well and I think this goesback to really understanding
our own biology.
You know, one of theinteresting things is and I know
I'm a big fan of Dr Matt Walkerand his studies that he has
(18:38):
done on sleep and they have donewhen he wrote the book, there
was a study being done of themtrying to find someone that
could be productive at less thansix hours of sleep or seven
hours of sleep.
They studied over 10,000 people.
They couldn't find anybody.
I still believe people are outthere.
(18:58):
I just don't think they'regetting the right folks.
And the reason why I'm going tosay this is when we look at
humankind through history, let'sgo back through evolution and
everything like that but let'skind of land in the spot where
we're living, in huts, kind ofin nature, right, we have to
(19:18):
protect ourselves from theanimals and other tribes coming
in or other folks.
You're going to always have thenight watch.
They're always going to bethere.
So I have a hard time thinkingthat throughout time we've lost
some biology of having a nightwatch.
I think they're there.
(19:40):
I just don't think they're thepeople we're studying, because
they are a very unique set ofpeople and they're the ones that
, even though we knowcardiovascular disease, diabetes
, circadian rhythm disruption,they seem to skate by.
And here's the crazy thing is afew of the folks that I would
kind of, really kind ofdetermine would be almost like
(20:02):
those true night shifters.
Their stress level is so mellow, nothing like how we are.
And we see it.
We see it with some guys fromthe military and some women
through the military.
It's just, it's kind of wild.
I think we just need moreresearch on these groups of
people.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, that's, that's.
That's an interesting conceptand yeah, absolutely It'd be.
It'd be interesting to getthose people that are optimized
for night work in a group andkind of study and see, know, the
sunrise, sunset, that, um, youknow, those people that are
(20:54):
having the health issues haveactually underlying root causes
that are already going on, andthen this is just the icing on
the cake for them and it pushesthem over that edge and then now
they start to have, you know,cardio, cardiometabolic and, uh,
metabolic disease anddysfunction and things like that
.
You know, when I was backworking some of those long
shifts and not getting enoughsleep, I came across something
(21:19):
that they introduced in Beijing,china, in some of the airports,
and these are sleep pods.
These are actually soundproofpods that you can go in and
there's benefits in there forhealth, like you can play
binaural beats or sleep musicand you can go in and actually
get even if it's non-sleep deeprest.
(21:40):
You can go in there and rebootfor 45 minutes in between
flights or for an hour if youhave an hour, and I always
wondered, like, how beneficialthose would be for the shift
workers.
You know, in my position on aconstruction job, just like, all
right, I've reached my limit.
I'm operating at a dangerouslevel here.
I just need 45 minutes of sleepto reboot, like what it would be
(22:04):
like to go slip into one ofthose sleep pods for 45 minutes
on a job site, come outrefreshed, have your
productivity levels be, you know, 10, 15, 50% better than they
were an hour ago and then getback at it Like that would be so
refreshing.
But of course you knowcorporate industry would never
go for that.
They would laugh at the justyou want to do what you want to
(22:25):
take a nap while you're on theclock.
Are you out of your mind?
Like they would never go forthat.
But you know, I feel as though,when it comes to, you know, the
health aspect in corporatewellness, I feel other countries
are so far advanced than China,I mean than the United States.
You know China, for instance,with these sleep pods in Beijing
(22:48):
and I'm trying to recall thecountry and you may know this
already that actually changedthe work week from.
I think they went from like afive-day work week to either a
four-day or a three-day workweek.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Yeah.
So I don't know if they'restill doing it.
It was France that did it.
Where they were doing it wasFridays, they were off.
Somebody I was.
I was saying this to somebody acouple of years back and
they're like, yeah, they kind ofstopped that.
I don't know if it's true.
So if you have any Frenchlisteners.
But funny story with all ofthat is I used to work in the
(23:27):
life science field, so we usedto work with Sanofi often and
they're based out of France, Ibelieve it was Sanofi, and yeah,
we couldn't email them onFriday because they were always
off.
So but yeah, I think that kindof went away a little bit.
But yes, to your, to your pointabsolutely, and to your point
(23:48):
also talking to.
I mean, can you imagine a heavymachine, this getting out of
the?
You know the, the machines, andbeing like I gotta go sleep in
the nap pod?
I mean there would have to be acultural change here too,
because one of the interestingthings and you kind of alluded
to it in in kind of talkingabout that is we have this grit
culture essentially, where ifyou're not burning yourself out,
(24:12):
if you're not working to themax, it's kind of like you're
not doing enough.
You know and I see that a lotin the skilled trades we have to
understand that our health isimportant.
We have to understand thesafety risks.
You know, it's not just as muchas I can take a Red Bull and
(24:33):
get back on that machine ifyou're exhausted.
It's interesting because, goingback to the book by Matthew
Walker why we Sleep, he talksabout that if someone was to
sleep less than seven hours for11 days, they would have the
productivity level of someonethat was legally intoxicated or
(24:55):
something.
I might have the thing slightlyskewed, but essentially, can
you imagine Now every heavymachinist that works the night
shift.
Tell me one that's gettingseven hours of sleep and yet
they're getting into their rigs,their excavators or cranes and
they're running these jobs andthey're not sleeping, but yet
(25:19):
you would never let somebodycome in with a blood alcohol
level of 0.08 and run thatmachinery.
But we're doing the same thinghere and we just have to start
taking sleep seriously and wehave to start acknowledging how
we can do it.
Is it changing some of theseshifts out, some of these high
(25:43):
rotations?
You know what does that looklike, but it's really about
having those conversations.
So essentially, there's acultural shift that has to
happen, as well as anorganizational shift.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah, sure, I completely agree, and in some
industries they have actuallystepped in and put regulations
in place, just not in theconstruction industry.
But if you look at public safetyand the Department of
Transportation, you know an overthe road truck driver can only
drive so many hours before he ismandated to stop and take a
break and uh, and then continue.
So you know, maybe we'retrending in the right direction.
(26:19):
But uh, I think that you knowthe corporations have profit
over people, like manycorporations do, um, where
they're just not looking at theoverall wellbeing.
And in you know, largecompanies, especially like the
one that I worked for years ago,employees are disposable and
when you know, when somebodygets burnt out and has health
(26:39):
issues, off they go and theyjust put somebody else in their
place and they're not looking at, you know, the overall
well-being of humanity.
They're looking at the bottomline of the project and you know
, can we bring it in underbudget and, you know, early on
schedule.
So it's typically where they'relooking at.
So share with me some of themisconceptions about shift
(26:59):
workers and talk to our audienceabout you know, some of the
things they may hear out therein mainstream media about you
know.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Misconceptions of shift work.
Yeah, I think the first one isthe go to bed the same time
every night.
That's kind of one of thebiggest ones that are out there.
And when we look at mainstreamhealth and wellness advice and
sleep, I have to apologize, myallergies are a mess.
So if I sound a little weird,I'm coughing, you know why.
But when we look at that, right, if you go to any sleep
(27:34):
organization and you type in getbetter sleep, the first thing
that comes up is go to bed thesame time every night.
So when we're talking to peopleand we're like just go to bed
the same time every night, ifour clients can't do step one,
they're not going to go to steptwo, they're going to stop and
say healthy doesn't work for meand move on elsewhere.
(27:55):
So that's one of the biggestmisconceptions.
The other big misconception wehave is a lot of times we set up
these diet and nutrition plansand we set up breakfast, lunch,
dinner.
Now, if I'm a rotating shiftworker and I talk about this in
the healthcare field as well,because we do the same thing
with medication Breakfast, lunch, dinner this is what you're
(28:19):
going to have for breakfast,lunch, dinner those of us that
work nine to five.
Okay, that's pretty, prettyexplanatory.
Let's think of somebody that isa rotating shift door Breakfast
one week is 8 am Breakfast.
The next week is at 5 pm, whenthey're getting up.
What do they eat?
Do they eat dinner with theirfamily or do they eat their
(28:42):
breakfast?
These small questions that theyhave, and oftentimes, here's
the crazy thing is, they're notgoing to ask because they feel
dumb.
They feel like it's somethingthey should know.
And the second part of that is,a lot of times we don't ask if
(29:04):
there's any questions or wedon't really allow them the
space to ask these.
And it's kind of the pointwhere, well, they don't really
allow them the space to askthese and it's kind of the point
where, well, they don'tunderstand my life.
They'll never understand it, sowhy even bother asking them?
We have to start having theseconversations.
One of the things I ask a lot ofmy clients is because I have
(29:25):
client calls all day.
I work in corporate wellness.
Some are shift workers, somearen't.
I need to know what their daylooks like.
Sometimes I'll ask if I knowI'm working in health care.
What are your shifts?
What's your day look like?
We have to understand thatbefore we go spouting advice,
because this will allow them theopportunity to say, hey, you
(29:49):
know, on those days I'm workingnight shifts what does that look
like?
And then to to that breakfast,lunch and dinner point.
One of the crazy things and it'snot everybody, but one of the
crazy things I've noticed withnight shift is two meals and a
snack is usually the better wayof eating for a lot of them.
So if you're working like atrue night shift, you might be
(30:11):
having your two large mealsbefore you even go on shift, and
then maybe that two, 3 am,maybe having a yogurt, an easy
to digest protein, somethinglike that.
When we come home, maybe havinganother small snack.
But a lot of times people aregoing right to bed because we
stop.
We I shouldn't say we stop weforget that a lot of times.
(30:33):
That circadian rhythm alsocontrols our digestion.
So if their schedules areflipped, that means our
digestion is flipped and we haveto accommodate for that as well
.
And exercise is another big one.
We talk about getting thosecardiovascular hitting the
weight training.
All of that Super great.
Getting those cardiovascularhitting the weight training, all
(30:53):
of that Super great, superimportant.
But what about the ER roomnurse who has spent all night
running around and now she's gotto hit the gym either before
she goes to work or after shegoes to work.
She's exhausted.
Let's talk about morerestorative work for her.
Maybe it's not about weighttraining because she's been
lifting patients all night forthe last 12 hours.
(31:14):
Maybe for her it's focusing onsome yoga, some yoga nidra we
talked about that non-REM deepsleep and stuff like that.
That's really important.
So we have to look at this moreon what does their life look
like, instead of just what weknow is healthy.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Yeah, sure.
So exactly back to where westarted is meeting that client
where they're at, becausenobody's well, I shouldn't say
nobody's the same, but they canall fit in different buckets for
sure, and they're done withtheir shift or before their
shift.
But that construction workerthat's, you know, in a trench
running a hand shovel for 8, 12hours.
You know they've got theirexercise right there and they're
(32:05):
the ones that really need tochill out and stretch or do some
, you know, some zone two cardioor something like that.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yeah, I love the fact you brought up the security
guard, because I think we oftenoverlook the security guards,
the transportations that aremore sedentary.
Security guard can be kind offun, because the interesting
thing with security guards is alot of times we can put this
fitness inside their rounds andstuff like that, especially if
they're at a manufacturingfacility and they have to get up
(32:33):
and walk around the facility.
They have to get up and walkaround the facility.
Transportation is another superfun one because you know
they're more in that 10 hourbucket, like you were saying
before.
But then afterwards what doesthat look like?
You know it's funny.
A lot of transportation driversutilize Planet Fitness for
their gyms because they're allover the place.
Well, this is a great way youcan get your shower, you can get
(32:56):
your fitness.
Well, this is a great way youcan get your shower, you can get
your fitness.
There's so many easy ways thatwe can kind of habit stack some
fitness that it becomes reallyfun.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, that's amazing and I didn't even make that
connection there.
But yeah, the you know, thoseglobal franchises that are all
over the world are all over theUnited States.
For people that are travelinginternationally whether it's by
airplane or you know, anover-the-road truck driver or
something like that that's aperfect point and they can
shower, they can be aroundpeople, which is important too,
(33:26):
because some of those jobs youknow, like a single security
guard, spends his days sleepingand he spends his nights in a
booth waving people through agate, like he's missing that
human connection.
And then, of course, same thingwith the truck drivers.
They're just in their truck, ofcourse they're surrounded by
people on the road, but they'remissing that human connection
and conversation and things likethat.
(33:46):
So that's a great way to getthat in.
Let's shift the conversation alittle bit, because the podcast
does have a healthy percentageof listeners that are actually
health coaches as well.
So what advice would you give awellness professional who wants
to work in corporate wellnessor with organizations but
doesn't know where to start?
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, so you know, when it comes to corporate
wellness.
So I've been in corporatewellness for about 13 years now.
One of the things is last yearI started a course called the
Corporate Wellness Blueprintwhere really we were kind of
breaking down what corporatewellness looks like.
So you can check out my website, laura Timbrook dot com.
(34:27):
Check out that course.
We have courses on shipworkingas well.
Really important when we'relooking at corporate wellness is
we really have to understandwhat is corporate wellness, what
it looks like today, because Ican tell you, corporate wellness
five years ago, corporatewellness today, totally
different landscape.
So it's really important tokind of understand and really
(34:50):
kind of look at how you want tointegrate it into your current
practice.
So it's really kind ofunderstanding a lot of that.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Very good.
And, of course, it leads me tothe question if you're working
with shift workers as a healthcoach, does that mean that you
need to adjust your schedule?
Are you seeing more clients,like early in the morning or
late at night?
Speaker 2 (35:15):
How does that work into your coaching practice.
I'm totally a day walker and Isupport night shifters.
The funny thing is is sometimesthe earlier appointments work
for them, oftentimes the laterappointments.
It's really difficult because,especially if they're a night
shifter, they're waking up,they're trying to spend time
with their family.
(35:36):
You talked about it earlier onin the podcast or just actually
a second ago about thoserelationships.
Relationships are really prettyimportant for them.
So a lot of times later islater is harder, earlier is
better, but oftentimes they'llschedule appointments with me at
two o'clock, three o'clock inthe afternoon on a day they're
off, or something like that.
In the afternoon on a daythey're off, or something like
(35:56):
that.
One of the hardest problems theyhave is that they work in the
night shift but the world runsin a day shift, so a lot of
times there's events that theyhave to go to and things like
that.
So, yeah, you could totallywork with night shifters and
rotating shift workers and stillwork a daytime job.
I will tell you, sometimes youhave to get creative with maybe
(36:18):
it's using more email thanface-to-face video talks.
Phone calls have been a hugecomeback for me, where people
are like can we just have aphone call for like 15 minutes?
Yes, I would love to have aphone call for 15 minutes so
kind of adjusting that.
But if any coaches areinterested in working with some
of the night shift and some ofthe struggles that they have,
(36:40):
you can go to lauratimbrookcomslash night shift and there's a
coaching the night shift freeguide to better sleep for your
shift workers.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Oh, that's amazing.
So generous of you, thanks.
Thanks for bringing that to theaudience and I'm sure they're
going to check that out.
So that's lauratimbro Timbrook.
T I M B R O O, kcom.
Yep, excellent, awesome, laura.
Well, thanks for having aconversation with me today about
shift work and, uh, where canpeople find you?
You have a.
You have a website.
We talked about um, tell theaudience the name of your
(37:10):
podcast and the best socialplatform to find you on.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Yeah, so Laura Timbrookcom, google me, I'm
everywhere.
Um, my podcast is called theshift health coach podcast,
where season three we actuallyreally went into health and
wellness coaching a lot on thebusiness side.
So if you're a health coach,you want to learn about that, go
to season three.
Season four we just started uphere in January.
(37:35):
This is going back to the rootsof the shift worker.
So if you want to the roots ofthe shift worker, so if you want
to see some of the things thatthey struggle with, some of the
things on how you can integrateit, the Shift Health Coach
podcast will give you all ofthat.
And connect with me on LinkedIn.
Linkedin is my big area, sojump over on LinkedIn.
I'm on Instagram, but LinkedInis where I'm most active.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Yeah, I would imagine being in corporate wellness.
Linkedin is the platform foryou and is your podcast on
YouTube as well.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
So my podcast is not on YouTube.
I have a small YouTube channel,I.
I am one of those people I justvideo to me is really difficult
, so no problem all audio.
But the fun thing is, you cantell Amazon Alexa to play the
shift health Coach podcast andit pops right up.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
I love that.
That's great advice.
All right, laura, thank you somuch for being here today on the
Breaking Boundaries forEntrepreneurs podcast, and we'd
love to have you back on theprogram sometime.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Absolutely you let me know, you call, I'll come.
Awesome, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
All right, bye now.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
All right, bye now.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Well, there you have it.
I know you enjoyed theconversation with Laura Timbrook
today and be sure to check outher podcast, the Shift Health
Coach Podcast, especially seasonfour, the April 4th episode,
unlocking your Subconscious Mind, where Laura and I also had a
conversation over there on herplatform, and be sure to go to
(39:02):
lauratimbrookcom and get herbook Shift Happens.
You can also find that onAmazon, but on her website
you'll also find her shift workguide that you can download
there, and we appreciate youtuning in to the Breaking
Boundaries podcast forentrepreneurs.
Be sure to share this episodeor any of our episodes with
(39:23):
those you feel it can serve andsubscribe so you don't miss a
show and we'll see you next time.
Take care everybody.
What if your health didn't have to take a backseat
just because your schedule runsopposite of the world's?
This week, on BreakingBoundaries for Entrepreneurs,
I'm sitting down with LauraTimbrook, international speaker,
board-certified health coachand the go-to expert in shift
worker wellness.
She spent over a decadetransforming how businesses and
(00:23):
individuals approach healthoutside the 9-to-5 model, and
her insights are nothing shortof eye-opening.
Whether you're a night owlentrepreneur juggling multiple
roles or supporting clients withunconventional schedules, this
episode is packed with real talk, science-backed strategies and
powerful mindset shifts.
(00:43):
Real talk, science-backedstrategies and powerful mindset
shifts.
And, yes, we talk about whyshift happens and how to thrive.
Anyway, Be sure to stay tillthe end to get your free night
shift guide from Laura.
Let's go.
Hello, I'm Jeffrey Mort.
If you're like mostentrepreneurs, you're busy
taking care of business, yetwho's taking care of you?
(01:04):
If you're ready to take yourenergy and performance to the
next level in your taking careof business yet who's taking
care of you?
If you're ready to take yourenergy and performance to the
next level in your life and yourbusiness, then this podcast is
for you, Because today you'regoing to start breaking
boundaries of your mind, bodyand business with integrative
health, and when you do that,your possibilities are limitless
.
I'm grateful you're here, Laura.
(01:28):
Thank you so much for joiningus on the breaking boundaries
for entrepreneurs podcast.
How are you today?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I'm awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Thank you so much for having me on yeah, wonderful,
wonderful thanks for taking thetime to to join us today and
share some of your wisdom aboutbeing able to support shift
workers.
So tell the audience how iscoaching shift workers a little
bit different from coachingtraditional nine to five clients
?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, one of the biggest things and I never
realized this when I startedfirst going into a lot of
corporate wellness.
But one of the things whenwe're in corporate wellness and
we're dealing with a lot of nineto fives, we don't really
understand those barriers of Ican't go to bed same time every
night, or what do you knowbreakfast, lunch and dinner
really look like when you worknight shift.
(02:13):
But when you start coachingthese individuals, you realize a
lot of times what we talk aboutmainstream health and wellness
advice, going to bed atconsistent time every night, you
know, being mindful of our mealtiming and prioritizing protein
all great advice.
But what does that look like onthe flip side of the day?
What does that look like whenyou know 10 o'clock is the time
(02:36):
that we're maybe having a cup ofcoffee before we're going into
work to start at maybe 11 pm ormidnight?
You know what does that meanwhen we get off of work at 6 am.
So it's really this dichotomyand a lot of times as coaches,
we would often say, well, justflip the schedule around.
It's not as easy as flipping theschedule around, because one of
(02:59):
the biggest issues that we seeis our digestive systems when
we're 2 o'clock in the afternoon, our digestive system is kind
of at its height.
Two o'clock in the morning, ourdigestive system, even though
that's the middle of our quoteunquote day, our digestive
system is still not at its max.
(03:20):
So if we were to have ahamburger at two o'clock in the
afternoon and we had a hamburgerat two o'clock in the morning,
even though that's the start ofour day, it's still not going to
break down the same.
The whole thing changes.
And then we have issues withrelationships and sleep.
It's just, it's so much morethan I ever imagined when I
(03:43):
first started coaching the shiftworking professionals.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
I can only imagine it's got tobe a completely different
dynamic to be able to make thoseadjustments for people.
And so talk a little bit about,you know, the shift workers
that have a consistent, likethey've been working third shift
for 20 years and then that'sjust their lifestyle compared to
the shift workers like, um, youknow, in my practice I've had
(04:08):
firefighters that do a rotatingshift, so sometimes they work,
you know, three 12-hour days, um, and then they go back to their
you know, quote unquote normallife.
Uh, and talk a little bit aboutthat and what you see and how
that affects it.
You know, is it harder to workwith those people or easier to
work with those people that arelike half in and half out of
that shift work?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, I think you're absolutely right.
Rotating shifts is one of thehardest, not only to work with,
but the hardest for them toreally understand how they need
to be eating, sleeping, managingrelationships, all those you
know pillars of health that weso often talk about.
One of the interesting factorsis is our bodies, our brains, we
(04:53):
like repetition, we likepatterns.
So one of the things that weneed to do is kind of figure out
patterns within that chaos.
What can we do to allow them toif they can't sleep?
We'll use sleep as an example,because this is usually a big
one For someone that works thirdshift and they've done it for
(05:14):
one year, 30 years they prettymuch have an understanding of
okay, this is where I have tostart getting ready to go to bed
, this is what you know.
They have a routine.
Getting ready to go to bed thisis what you know.
They have a routine.
Rotating shift workers routine.
Their routine is there is noroutine.
So really, with this, we'rereally kind of massaging and
(05:37):
trying to figure out how we canmanage things a little bit
better.
Sleep, like we were saying, canbe really difficult because
with sleep, how do you get sevento nine hours of sleep when
you're sleeping one day and thenthe next day you're maybe
sleeping a few hours laterbecause you're rotating from day
shift to night shift.
Now this is where kind ofunderstanding those patterns
(05:58):
come in, because some night somerotating shifters, they'll have
a week off, they'll have a fewdays off, maybe two or three
days.
So it's really preparing thatbody for that change.
So one of the easiest ways todo it is find the pattern
amongst the chaos, essentially,if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, it absolutely does.
And then what do you do onceyou find that pattern?
Do you work to optimize, likework with what you have and
optimize those sweet spots inthat pattern?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Absolutely.
As health coaches, we oftenhear people say you got to meet
the client where they're at.
This is the prime example ofmeeting the client where they're
at.
You know, we often talk aboutsleep being optimal at seven to
nine hours.
What if seven to nine hoursisn't even feasible in the first
, let's say phase of all of this?
(06:48):
We know, eventually gettingthem there would be great if at
all possible, because you made areally good point firefighters.
So we see this a lot ofemergency response.
And I'll even go one level bysaying skilled trades are
another big area where thishappens.
What about those 36-hour shifts?
(07:09):
No one talks about these andyet we see them amongst first
responders, we see them inhealth care workers.
I have a guy that is a unionelectrician 36 hours, you know.
Granted, they're not commonshifts, but they do exist.
So if we're meeting clientswhere they're at and we have
(07:31):
this expectation of what healthlooks like, we need to let go of
what our expectation of healthlooks like and focus on moving
that needle forward.
How can we be you know, jamesClear says it 1% better.
How do we be 1% better?
And I think that's one of thebiggest things as health and
wellness professionals is that?
(07:52):
You know, we got to let go ofour own biases when it comes to
some things and realize it's notgoing to be perfect.
But is there something we cando?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Absolutely, and you know, just sharing that client
story you're bringing me back.
I know firsthand exactly whatthat was like.
I worked for one of thenation's top electrical
contractors as a foreman andsometimes we would have to
adjust our shifts.
Sometimes you would do a dayshift during the week and then
go to a couple of nights andthen back to a day shift.
(08:22):
And going way back before Ieven owned my my electrical
contracting business, uh, therewas a time when I worked for
another contractor that we weredoing um it, it just it's
frustrating to even say it wewere doing seven, 12 hour shifts
and the commute was an hour anda half.
(08:42):
So we were driving three hoursround trip, doing 712s for, you
know, months at a stretch, andit was total zombie land, like
you know, working around heavy,heavy equipment, operating, you
know, operating equipment,working with live electricity.
It was so dangerous and youknow I could, I could feel the
(09:03):
detriment.
I didn't know if I was comingor going, I didn't know if it
was day or night and I was just,I was so fatigued and burnt out
, I couldn't focus, I couldn'tconcentrate and it was just so
dangerous.
But in the name of profit, wekept pushing on, and that's you
know.
So that kind of leads me to acouple of other questions.
What does?
(09:26):
And I knew when I was doingthis, I knew it wasn't healthy
for me.
I can feel it in every cell ofmy body that this is not leading
me in the right direction andit's going to take a lot of
course correcting to be able tounwind the damage that I'm doing
to my body, the actual physicalcellular damage.
Even back before I was a healthcoach, I knew this, I could
just feel it.
Back before I was a healthcoach, I knew this, I could just
(09:47):
feel it.
So you know what.
What can you share?
And what does you know the theglobal health authorities say
about shift work and thedetriment that that does to our
health?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Oh man.
Well, there's a few things here.
So if we look at the statisticswhen it comes to rotating
shifters and we're going tofocus on for a minute for
rotating shifters so two to fourhours less sleep than the
average day shifter.
So if we know, folks are onlygetting about five to six hours
of sleep, two to four less thanthat for a rotating shift worker
(10:19):
.
On average, I could tell youwhen I work with rotating shift
workers we're about four to fivehours of sleep.
So it's like, okay, we alreadyknow there's that.
We look at diabetes 60% increasein diabetes between rotating
shifters and day shift.
So from the health, we knowthis is all here.
(10:50):
Now, what does that all meanwhen we break it apart?
Well, a lot of times when we'relooking at stuff like diabetes,
we can look at diet.
You know, a lot of timesrotating shift workers don't
have the best diet.
What's open at two o'clock inthe morning when you haven't
packed?
We talk about health andwellness and we talk about just
(11:11):
buy healthier foods, makehealthier options.
For a lot of these folks it'snot that simple.
It's not as simple as you know,being able to hit a Whole Foods
.
We also have to understand isthat a lot of the time, the
environments we live in don'texist in the environments they
(11:31):
live in.
So let's take someone thatmight live in northern Texas,
western Oklahoma.
There's not a lot out there, sobeing able to find a Whole
foods might not even be possible, where a lot of their stuff is
coming from walmart.
So what is food that we'relooking at?
(11:53):
And then on top of there,there's a flip side not a lot of
them have time to prep.
Think about what, back when youwere working, would you have
had any time to meal prep?
Even if it was a priority, itwould be exactly.
It would be almost impossible.
So what are the simple thingsthat we can do to make it easy
and I think that's what we haveto start doing is trying to find
(12:14):
not the perfect solutions, justsomething a little bit better.
We did a workshop on gasstation nutrition in a couple of
our facilities that we wereworking in and that was really
mind opening, really learningwhat they would normally grab
and what we could grab.
So it's kind of again meetingthem where they're at what's
(12:37):
available, not always justtalking about what's perfect.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Yeah, absolutely, gas station nutrition.
That's funny because I lived itfor years and now that you know
I'm where, I am in the healthcoaching space and I have three
teenagers and when they say, hey, can we stop at the gas station
for some food, and I alwayslaugh and joke with them saying
there is no food at the gasstation.
(13:01):
There is no food there.
Maybe you'll find a banana oran apple or something along
those lines, and that's probably, you know, the best thing in
there is a bottle of water andsome, hopefully fresh fruit to
be able to, you know, give thebody the nutrients that it needs
.
So, on the aspect of health andthe seriousness of shift work,
(13:22):
can you share a little bit aboutthe position of the World
Health Organization on shiftwork?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
So, yeah, the interesting thing is, when we
were looking at the World HealthOrganization, this is kind of
something that jarred me andreally made me realize how
detrimental this is.
So when we look at it, it'sreally the World Health
Organization has actuallyrecognized shift work as a
(13:50):
carcinogenic and not a possiblecarcinogenic, saying it may or
may not happen.
They use the word probable.
That, to me, kind of reallywoke me up and it's like that to
me kind of really woke me upand it's like we understand the
detriments of this and we don'ttalk about it.
And I'll be honest with you,I'm not on the side of we
(14:12):
shouldn't do it.
I'm on the side of health andwellness professionals.
How can we stack the cards intheir favor?
Because here's the crazy thing,and this was something that
when I first started gettinginto really understanding shift
worker, I always thought peoplehave worked shifts because they
had to.
And it's interesting, when Iwas in corporate wellness, we
(14:34):
would often talk about um, oh,the term just left my mind Um,
it'll come to me in a second,it's right there, I can feel it.
Purpose we always talk aboutpurpose and in corporate
wellness, we're always talkingabout the need to find purpose.
(14:56):
When we work with our shiftworkers, so many of them have
purpose.
They knew they were going to bea doctor.
They knew they were going to bea firefighter.
They knew they wanted to be adiesel mechanic.
They love what they do.
So how do we tell them, eventhough you love what you do,
(15:16):
it's not good for you and stopit?
That's not healthy.
And here's the other crazy part.
I always thought people workednight shifts because they had to
.
Yet when I started working withnight shifters, there are some
of them that would rather not,but there's also a really large
population that love it.
One guy said to me he goes, hecould never be a day walker.
(15:39):
That's what night shift workerscall us that work during the
day that they could never be aday walker.
They love their job.
It's just trying to kind ofmake the puzzle pieces all fit,
and I think that's something weneed to look at, not telling
them they have to get a new jobor they have to work standard
shifts, because some people, ascrazy as it is, they like the
(15:59):
rotating shifts.
So what can we do as wellnessprofessionals, as organizations,
to support them a little bitbetter, to help reduce the rates
of cancer and cardiovasculardisease and metabolic conditions
.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Yeah, sure, and you know the the mindset of of those
night walkers, we'll call them.
You know there were some, somebenefits that I could.
I could see and feel for thatwhen I was working, not even,
you know, complete night shift,but you know had to be in at an
earlier hour, so maybe you knowmy commute would start at three,
34 o'clock in the morning.
(16:35):
There's no traffic on the road.
You breeze in in three quartersof the time, so it's much
easier.
The rest of the world issleeping when you work in a
night shift.
So your phone's not ringing,your email's not pinging, you
know you're, you're not havingall of those distractions,
people aren't bothering you,especially when we were doing
retrofits in a store, forinstance, back in the day we
(16:58):
were doing relamps and BJ'swholesales.
Nobody's in the store, so youhave the whole place for
yourself.
The workflow is more efficient,but to the detriment of the
health.
I'm just curious.
From my position I knew that itwasn't healthy for me and,
honestly, ultimately that's whatpulled me out of that industry
was my health got so bad that Ijust couldn't.
(17:18):
I couldn't perform the workanymore and I couldn't do that.
And that was, of course, thanksto ending up with COVID and I
went into health coaching fulltime after I healed myself.
But I'm curious if you've everhad a client.
Now, I know you wouldn't tellsomebody that they need to like
quit their job, but have youever had somebody realize on
(17:43):
their own accord that their jobwas so unhealthy that it was
like a losing battle and theirhealth was going to keep
declining so that they chose tochange their job and get their
circadian rhythm back?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, and I think that absolutely it's a difficult
conversation to have.
Most of the time, like you said, they know, they know and they
don't see the flip side of that.
What would life look like?
What are some possibilities?
As we're kind of utilizing somebrainstorming, what would it
look like, you know, would a dayjob work for them?
(18:15):
Or maybe we're looking atchanging the industry.
Having that conversation, thereare some folks that just don't
adapt well and I think this goesback to really understanding
our own biology.
You know, one of theinteresting things is and I know
I'm a big fan of Dr Matt Walkerand his studies that he has
(18:38):
done on sleep and they have donewhen he wrote the book, there
was a study being done of themtrying to find someone that
could be productive at less thansix hours of sleep or seven
hours of sleep.
They studied over 10,000 people.
They couldn't find anybody.
I still believe people are outthere.
(18:58):
I just don't think they'regetting the right folks.
And the reason why I'm going tosay this is when we look at
humankind through history, let'sgo back through evolution and
everything like that but let'skind of land in the spot where
we're living, in huts, kind ofin nature, right, we have to
(19:18):
protect ourselves from theanimals and other tribes coming
in or other folks.
You're going to always have thenight watch.
They're always going to bethere.
So I have a hard time thinkingthat throughout time we've lost
some biology of having a nightwatch.
I think they're there.
(19:40):
I just don't think they're thepeople we're studying, because
they are a very unique set ofpeople and they're the ones that
, even though we knowcardiovascular disease, diabetes
, circadian rhythm disruption,they seem to skate by.
And here's the crazy thing is afew of the folks that I would
kind of, really kind ofdetermine would be almost like
(20:02):
those true night shifters.
Their stress level is so mellow, nothing like how we are.
And we see it.
We see it with some guys fromthe military and some women
through the military.
It's just, it's kind of wild.
I think we just need moreresearch on these groups of
people.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, that's, that's.
That's an interesting conceptand yeah, absolutely It'd be.
It'd be interesting to getthose people that are optimized
for night work in a group andkind of study and see, know, the
sunrise, sunset, that, um, youknow, those people that are
(20:54):
having the health issues haveactually underlying root causes
that are already going on, andthen this is just the icing on
the cake for them and it pushesthem over that edge and then now
they start to have, you know,cardio, cardiometabolic and, uh,
metabolic disease anddysfunction and things like that
.
You know, when I was backworking some of those long
shifts and not getting enoughsleep, I came across something
(21:19):
that they introduced in Beijing,china, in some of the airports,
and these are sleep pods.
These are actually soundproofpods that you can go in and
there's benefits in there forhealth, like you can play
binaural beats or sleep musicand you can go in and actually
get even if it's non-sleep deeprest.
(21:40):
You can go in there and rebootfor 45 minutes in between
flights or for an hour if youhave an hour, and I always
wondered, like, how beneficialthose would be for the shift
workers.
You know, in my position on aconstruction job, just like, all
right, I've reached my limit.
I'm operating at a dangerouslevel here.
I just need 45 minutes of sleepto reboot, like what it would be
(22:04):
like to go slip into one ofthose sleep pods for 45 minutes
on a job site, come outrefreshed, have your
productivity levels be, you know, 10, 15, 50% better than they
were an hour ago and then getback at it Like that would be so
refreshing.
But of course you knowcorporate industry would never
go for that.
They would laugh at the justyou want to do what you want to
(22:25):
take a nap while you're on theclock.
Are you out of your mind?
Like they would never go forthat.
But you know, I feel as though,when it comes to, you know, the
health aspect in corporatewellness, I feel other countries
are so far advanced than China,I mean than the United States.
You know China, for instance,with these sleep pods in Beijing
(22:48):
and I'm trying to recall thecountry and you may know this
already that actually changedthe work week from.
I think they went from like afive-day work week to either a
four-day or a three-day workweek.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Yeah.
So I don't know if they'restill doing it.
It was France that did it.
Where they were doing it wasFridays, they were off.
Somebody I was.
I was saying this to somebody acouple of years back and
they're like, yeah, they kind ofstopped that.
I don't know if it's true.
So if you have any Frenchlisteners.
But funny story with all ofthat is I used to work in the
(23:27):
life science field, so we usedto work with Sanofi often and
they're based out of France, Ibelieve it was Sanofi, and yeah,
we couldn't email them onFriday because they were always
off.
So but yeah, I think that kindof went away a little bit.
But yes, to your, to your pointabsolutely, and to your point
(23:48):
also talking to.
I mean, can you imagine a heavymachine, this getting out of
the?
You know the, the machines, andbeing like I gotta go sleep in
the nap pod?
I mean there would have to be acultural change here too,
because one of the interestingthings and you kind of alluded
to it in in kind of talkingabout that is we have this grit
culture essentially, where ifyou're not burning yourself out,
(24:12):
if you're not working to themax, it's kind of like you're
not doing enough.
You know and I see that a lotin the skilled trades we have to
understand that our health isimportant.
We have to understand thesafety risks.
You know, it's not just as muchas I can take a Red Bull and
(24:33):
get back on that machine ifyou're exhausted.
It's interesting because, goingback to the book by Matthew
Walker why we Sleep, he talksabout that if someone was to
sleep less than seven hours for11 days, they would have the
productivity level of someonethat was legally intoxicated or
(24:55):
something.
I might have the thing slightlyskewed, but essentially, can
you imagine Now every heavymachinist that works the night
shift.
Tell me one that's gettingseven hours of sleep and yet
they're getting into their rigs,their excavators or cranes and
they're running these jobs andthey're not sleeping, but yet
(25:19):
you would never let somebodycome in with a blood alcohol
level of 0.08 and run thatmachinery.
But we're doing the same thinghere and we just have to start
taking sleep seriously and wehave to start acknowledging how
we can do it.
Is it changing some of theseshifts out, some of these high
(25:43):
rotations?
You know what does that looklike, but it's really about
having those conversations.
So essentially, there's acultural shift that has to
happen, as well as anorganizational shift.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah, sure, I completely agree, and in some
industries they have actuallystepped in and put regulations
in place, just not in theconstruction industry.
But if you look at public safetyand the Department of
Transportation, you know an overthe road truck driver can only
drive so many hours before he ismandated to stop and take a
break and uh, and then continue.
So you know, maybe we'retrending in the right direction.
(26:19):
But uh, I think that you knowthe corporations have profit
over people, like manycorporations do, um, where
they're just not looking at theoverall wellbeing.
And in you know, largecompanies, especially like the
one that I worked for years ago,employees are disposable and
when you know, when somebodygets burnt out and has health
(26:39):
issues, off they go and theyjust put somebody else in their
place and they're not looking at, you know, the overall
well-being of humanity.
They're looking at the bottomline of the project and you know
, can we bring it in underbudget and, you know, early on
schedule.
So it's typically where they'relooking at.
So share with me some of themisconceptions about shift
(26:59):
workers and talk to our audienceabout you know, some of the
things they may hear out therein mainstream media about you
know.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Misconceptions of shift work.
Yeah, I think the first one isthe go to bed the same time
every night.
That's kind of one of thebiggest ones that are out there.
And when we look at mainstreamhealth and wellness advice and
sleep, I have to apologize, myallergies are a mess.
So if I sound a little weird,I'm coughing, you know why.
But when we look at that, right, if you go to any sleep
(27:34):
organization and you type in getbetter sleep, the first thing
that comes up is go to bed thesame time every night.
So when we're talking to peopleand we're like just go to bed
the same time every night, ifour clients can't do step one,
they're not going to go to steptwo, they're going to stop and
say healthy doesn't work for meand move on elsewhere.
(27:55):
So that's one of the biggestmisconceptions.
The other big misconception wehave is a lot of times we set up
these diet and nutrition plansand we set up breakfast, lunch,
dinner.
Now, if I'm a rotating shiftworker and I talk about this in
the healthcare field as well,because we do the same thing
with medication Breakfast, lunch, dinner this is what you're
(28:19):
going to have for breakfast,lunch, dinner those of us that
work nine to five.
Okay, that's pretty, prettyexplanatory.
Let's think of somebody that isa rotating shift door Breakfast
one week is 8 am Breakfast.
The next week is at 5 pm, whenthey're getting up.
What do they eat?
Do they eat dinner with theirfamily or do they eat their
(28:42):
breakfast?
These small questions that theyhave, and oftentimes, here's
the crazy thing is, they're notgoing to ask because they feel
dumb.
They feel like it's somethingthey should know.
And the second part of that is,a lot of times we don't ask if
(29:04):
there's any questions or wedon't really allow them the
space to ask these.
And it's kind of the pointwhere, well, they don't really
allow them the space to askthese and it's kind of the point
where, well, they don'tunderstand my life.
They'll never understand it, sowhy even bother asking them?
We have to start having theseconversations.
One of the things I ask a lot ofmy clients is because I have
(29:25):
client calls all day.
I work in corporate wellness.
Some are shift workers, somearen't.
I need to know what their daylooks like.
Sometimes I'll ask if I knowI'm working in health care.
What are your shifts?
What's your day look like?
We have to understand thatbefore we go spouting advice,
because this will allow them theopportunity to say, hey, you
(29:49):
know, on those days I'm workingnight shifts what does that look
like?
And then to to that breakfast,lunch and dinner point.
One of the crazy things and it'snot everybody, but one of the
crazy things I've noticed withnight shift is two meals and a
snack is usually the better wayof eating for a lot of them.
So if you're working like atrue night shift, you might be
(30:11):
having your two large mealsbefore you even go on shift, and
then maybe that two, 3 am,maybe having a yogurt, an easy
to digest protein, somethinglike that.
When we come home, maybe havinganother small snack.
But a lot of times people aregoing right to bed because we
stop.
We I shouldn't say we stop weforget that a lot of times.
(30:33):
That circadian rhythm alsocontrols our digestion.
So if their schedules areflipped, that means our
digestion is flipped and we haveto accommodate for that as well
.
And exercise is another big one.
We talk about getting thosecardiovascular hitting the
weight training.
All of that Super great.
Getting those cardiovascularhitting the weight training, all
(30:53):
of that Super great, superimportant.
But what about the ER roomnurse who has spent all night
running around and now she's gotto hit the gym either before
she goes to work or after shegoes to work.
She's exhausted.
Let's talk about morerestorative work for her.
Maybe it's not about weighttraining because she's been
lifting patients all night forthe last 12 hours.
(31:14):
Maybe for her it's focusing onsome yoga, some yoga nidra we
talked about that non-REM deepsleep and stuff like that.
That's really important.
So we have to look at this moreon what does their life look
like, instead of just what weknow is healthy.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Yeah, sure.
So exactly back to where westarted is meeting that client
where they're at, becausenobody's well, I shouldn't say
nobody's the same, but they canall fit in different buckets for
sure, and they're done withtheir shift or before their
shift.
But that construction workerthat's, you know, in a trench
running a hand shovel for 8, 12hours.
You know they've got theirexercise right there and they're
(32:05):
the ones that really need tochill out and stretch or do some
, you know, some zone two cardioor something like that.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yeah, I love the fact you brought up the security
guard, because I think we oftenoverlook the security guards,
the transportations that aremore sedentary.
Security guard can be kind offun, because the interesting
thing with security guards is alot of times we can put this
fitness inside their rounds andstuff like that, especially if
they're at a manufacturingfacility and they have to get up
(32:33):
and walk around the facility.
They have to get up and walkaround the facility.
Transportation is another superfun one because you know
they're more in that 10 hourbucket, like you were saying
before.
But then afterwards what doesthat look like?
You know it's funny.
A lot of transportation driversutilize Planet Fitness for
their gyms because they're allover the place.
Well, this is a great way youcan get your shower, you can get
(32:56):
your fitness.
Well, this is a great way youcan get your shower, you can get
your fitness.
There's so many easy ways thatwe can kind of habit stack some
fitness that it becomes reallyfun.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, that's amazing and I didn't even make that
connection there.
But yeah, the you know, thoseglobal franchises that are all
over the world are all over theUnited States.
For people that are travelinginternationally whether it's by
airplane or you know, anover-the-road truck driver or
something like that that's aperfect point and they can
shower, they can be aroundpeople, which is important too,
(33:26):
because some of those jobs youknow, like a single security
guard, spends his days sleepingand he spends his nights in a
booth waving people through agate, like he's missing that
human connection.
And then, of course, same thingwith the truck drivers.
They're just in their truck, ofcourse they're surrounded by
people on the road, but they'remissing that human connection
and conversation and things likethat.
(33:46):
So that's a great way to getthat in.
Let's shift the conversation alittle bit, because the podcast
does have a healthy percentageof listeners that are actually
health coaches as well.
So what advice would you give awellness professional who wants
to work in corporate wellnessor with organizations but
doesn't know where to start?
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, so you know, when it comes to corporate
wellness.
So I've been in corporatewellness for about 13 years now.
One of the things is last yearI started a course called the
Corporate Wellness Blueprintwhere really we were kind of
breaking down what corporatewellness looks like.
So you can check out my website, laura Timbrook dot com.
(34:27):
Check out that course.
We have courses on shipworkingas well.
Really important when we'relooking at corporate wellness is
we really have to understandwhat is corporate wellness, what
it looks like today, because Ican tell you, corporate wellness
five years ago, corporatewellness today, totally
different landscape.
So it's really important tokind of understand and really
(34:50):
kind of look at how you want tointegrate it into your current
practice.
So it's really kind ofunderstanding a lot of that.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Very good.
And, of course, it leads me tothe question if you're working
with shift workers as a healthcoach, does that mean that you
need to adjust your schedule?
Are you seeing more clients,like early in the morning or
late at night?
Speaker 2 (35:15):
How does that work into your coaching practice.
I'm totally a day walker and Isupport night shifters.
The funny thing is is sometimesthe earlier appointments work
for them, oftentimes the laterappointments.
It's really difficult because,especially if they're a night
shifter, they're waking up,they're trying to spend time
with their family.
(35:36):
You talked about it earlier onin the podcast or just actually
a second ago about thoserelationships.
Relationships are really prettyimportant for them.
So a lot of times later islater is harder, earlier is
better, but oftentimes they'llschedule appointments with me at
two o'clock, three o'clock inthe afternoon on a day they're
off, or something like that.
In the afternoon on a daythey're off, or something like
(35:56):
that.
One of the hardest problems theyhave is that they work in the
night shift but the world runsin a day shift, so a lot of
times there's events that theyhave to go to and things like
that.
So, yeah, you could totallywork with night shifters and
rotating shift workers and stillwork a daytime job.
I will tell you, sometimes youhave to get creative with maybe
(36:18):
it's using more email thanface-to-face video talks.
Phone calls have been a hugecomeback for me, where people
are like can we just have aphone call for like 15 minutes?
Yes, I would love to have aphone call for 15 minutes so
kind of adjusting that.
But if any coaches areinterested in working with some
of the night shift and some ofthe struggles that they have,
(36:40):
you can go to lauratimbrookcomslash night shift and there's a
coaching the night shift freeguide to better sleep for your
shift workers.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Oh, that's amazing.
So generous of you, thanks.
Thanks for bringing that to theaudience and I'm sure they're
going to check that out.
So that's lauratimbro Timbrook.
T I M B R O O, kcom.
Yep, excellent, awesome, laura.
Well, thanks for having aconversation with me today about
shift work and, uh, where canpeople find you?
You have a.
You have a website.
We talked about um, tell theaudience the name of your
(37:10):
podcast and the best socialplatform to find you on.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Yeah, so Laura Timbrookcom, google me, I'm
everywhere.
Um, my podcast is called theshift health coach podcast,
where season three we actuallyreally went into health and
wellness coaching a lot on thebusiness side.
So if you're a health coach,you want to learn about that, go
to season three.
Season four we just started uphere in January.
(37:35):
This is going back to the rootsof the shift worker.
So if you want to the roots ofthe shift worker, so if you want
to see some of the things thatthey struggle with, some of the
things on how you can integrateit, the Shift Health Coach
podcast will give you all ofthat.
And connect with me on LinkedIn.
Linkedin is my big area, sojump over on LinkedIn.
I'm on Instagram, but LinkedInis where I'm most active.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Yeah, I would imagine being in corporate wellness.
Linkedin is the platform foryou and is your podcast on
YouTube as well.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
So my podcast is not on YouTube.
I have a small YouTube channel,I.
I am one of those people I justvideo to me is really difficult
, so no problem all audio.
But the fun thing is, you cantell Amazon Alexa to play the
shift health Coach podcast andit pops right up.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
I love that.
That's great advice.
All right, laura, thank you somuch for being here today on the
Breaking Boundaries forEntrepreneurs podcast, and we'd
love to have you back on theprogram sometime.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Absolutely you let me know, you call, I'll come.
Awesome, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
All right, bye now.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
All right, bye now.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Well, there you have it.
I know you enjoyed theconversation with Laura Timbrook
today and be sure to check outher podcast, the Shift Health
Coach Podcast, especially seasonfour, the April 4th episode,
unlocking your Subconscious Mind, where Laura and I also had a
conversation over there on herplatform, and be sure to go to
(39:02):
lauratimbrookcom and get herbook Shift Happens.
You can also find that onAmazon, but on her website
you'll also find her shift workguide that you can download
there, and we appreciate youtuning in to the Breaking
Boundaries podcast forentrepreneurs.
Be sure to share this episodeor any of our episodes with
(39:23):
those you feel it can serve andsubscribe so you don't miss a
show and we'll see you next time.
Take care everybody.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com