For those who work late or overnight, shift work often comes with changes to one’s lifestyle – sleeping through the day or going to bed early are habits that become necessary parts of the job.
However, while your body is adapting, it can result in shift work sleep disorder. Symptoms include lethargy, headaches, and trouble with sleep. Shift work sleep disorder currently affects up to twenty percent of Australia’s work force across multiple industries.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle amidst a sleep schedule dictated by irregular work hours can also contribute to mental fatigue alongside the shift work sleep disorder. Avoiding going to the gym, alcohol, caffeine and eating heavily can all help prevent sleeplessness, and are necessary for modifying one’s internal clock
As it stands, shift workers are susceptible to difficulties when it comes to managing the effects of their job on their work-life balance.
Read Dr Christopher Gordon’s piece on how shift work affects sleep here.
Image: Image: Shutterstock – Lysenko Andrii
Produced By: Steven Samaras
Featured In Story: Dr. Christopher Gordon, Associate Professor of Sleep Health at Macquarie University, and
First aired on The Wire, Wednesday 24 January 2024