Shift and Sleep Management for Better Physical and Mental Health
Shifts’ a word that means an alarm bell to many because it means working at odd hours every day and for many the shift timing keep varying making it more of nuisance. The worst hit are those working on shift with short rotation. Both the night shifts as well as shift rotation have their own problems. But they result from the same root source. “ The body clock” , sleep disorders from shift work mainly happen due to the misalignment of the body clock. Generally the body clock takes a few days to realign itself but we follow night shifts sleeping patterns during the weekdays and then back to day pattern which again make the body clock to realign again. As by now you can see for yourself that how bad the scenario is for those working on shift rotation. Such sleep disorder arising from shift work and night shift work are basically the result of your biological clock going out of sync. It is quite similar to jet lag.
Many of you may be inclined to try various remedies like medication and alcohol but at best they should be looked upon as temporary solutions. Why? Because the root problem of the body clock is not solved by these solutions since they simply induce sleep. Also it has been found out by the recent researches and surveys on sleep disorders that the quality of sleep produced by these methods on a regular basis is not of the same quality as produced naturally by our bodies. Also most o them have side effects on long term usage.
Although an hormone named melatonin has been seen to be quite effective and is used in US, its effectiveness, safety and functioning data has not been accepted worldwide. So how do you solve this problem without the afore mentioned means. Well the solution is simple; allow the body clock to adjust to the current day schedule. There are many ways in which you can aid in this process.Firstly you can adjust your dietary and other schedules according to the new day placing your night or short shifts due to which sleep problems are occurring in place of your regular hours. This means changing your meal times etc.
Also you can adjust your meal to help your body to adjust easily. Though not universally approved but many of the medical fraternity believe that breakfast with high protein/low carbohydrates and lunches with high carbohydrates/low protein and other such practices help you to sleep more easily.
Finally many recent researches are giving clear evidence that doing some exercises help your body to sort itself out according to the ‘new day’.
But more essentially the atmosphere at your sleeping area must be such that you feel extremely comfortable in it i.e. it should be well ventilated , clean etc. Keeping all these things in mind will go a long way to help you work effectively during your odd working hours while warding away night shift sleep problems.
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