Welcome to A Healthy Shift | The Shift Work Podcast, the podcast helping shift workers thrive while changing how organisations think about people working in 24/7 environments.
Hosted by Roger Sutherland, Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist, this is where evidence meets lived experience.
After more than 40 years of working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, followed by years studying nutrition, circadian biology, chrononutrition, sleep, human performance and women's health, Roger is on a mission to challenge the belief that fatigue, poor sleep, burnout and declining health are simply part of working shifts.
Because they don't have to be.
Whether you're a nurse, paramedic, police officer, firefighter, doctor, aged care worker, manufacturing employee, FIFO worker, miner, pilot, flight attendant, truck driver, dispatcher, or anyone working outside the traditional 9-to-5, this podcast will give you practical, evidence-based strategies to help you sleep better, improve your energy, optimise your health and perform at your best.
If you're a leader, manager, People & Culture professional, WHS specialist, or responsible for leading a 24/7 workforce, you'll discover a different way of thinking about shift work—one that focuses on building shift work capability from within through education, leadership and practical systems that create healthier people, stronger teams and higher-performing organisations.
Each episode explores topics including:
• Shift work • Night shift • Sleep after night shift • Circadian rhythm • Fatigue management • Shift worker health • Nutrition for shift workers • Chrononutrition • Recovery and resilience • Women's health and shift work • Leadership in 24/7 organisations • Human performance • Workplace wellbeing • Fatigue risk management • Building healthier, safer and higher-performing workplaces
This isn't another podcast offering generic health tips.
It's a podcast about changing the future of shift work.
Because healthier people create stronger teams.
Stronger teams build better organisations.
And it all starts by understanding how to work with biology, not against it.
Are you a shift worker finding it tough to navigate those grueling weeks? Do you find yourself giving in to those early morning hunger pangs more often than you'd like? If so, you're not alone, and this episode is for you.
I'm Roger Sutherland, a certified nutritionist and a shift worker myself, and today, we explore the world of shift work and how to thrive in it. We'll discuss the crucial roles of ghrelin and leptin, two hormones that often get tossed around due to stress and lack of sleep, and how they impact your eating habits. We'll also delve into self-care, stress management, and the power of gratitude in maintaining mental health and overall wellbeing.
Imagine getting through your week feeling more balanced, mindful, and in control. Sounds good, right? Join me as we uncover ways to do just that. We'll talk about the importance of a good meditation practice, staying hydrated, maintaining proper nutrition, and managing your exposure to light. I'll also give you a glimpse into my personal journey through a challenging week and how I navigated it. Remember, shift work might not always be a walk in the park, but with the right strategies and a little patience, we can make it through. So, put on your headphones and join the conversation. Let's thrive in shift work, together!
Roger Sutherland is Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist and the founder of A Healthy Shift.
After more than 40 years working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, Roger now helps organisations reduce fatigue risk, improve staff wellbeing and build healthier, safer and higher-performing 24/7 workplaces through evidence-based education, circadian biology and the Shift Work Champions™ Framework.
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.
The way I talk on these podcasts , sometimes anyone would think that it's always rainbows and unicorns , but that's just not the case , is it ? Shift Workers ? In today's episode , I want to talk about when we really hit the skids , when it's really difficult . What are the simple things that we can do to keep ourselves on track . Shift Work can be brutal , but it doesn't have to be . Welcome to a healthy shift .
Speaker 1
My name is Roger Sutherland , certified Nutritionist , veteran Law Enforcement Officer and 24-7 Shift Worker for almost four decades . Through this podcast , I aim to educate Shift Workers , using evidence-based methods , to not only survive the rigors of Shift Work but thrive . My goal is to empower Shift Workers to improve their health and well-being so they have more energy to do the things they love . Enjoy today's show and welcome back to a Healthy Shift podcast where I uncover evidence-based strategies to help Shift Workers to thrive and not just survive . I'm your host , roger Sutherland , a Veteran Shift Worker of almost four decades and an evidence-based nutritionist , and I'm absolutely thrilled to be personally welcoming you to this episode of the show and thank you for listening today For me . Wow , what a week . Now . I'm doing this episode today because I've had the week from hell this week . It's been very , very difficult and what it's done is it's made me stop and reflect that it's not always unicorns and rainbows , is it . It can be very , very tough , and I coach Shift Workers that are in really , really difficult positions and are having real struggles , and I coach them through situations with things , and maybe it's time that I just shared just a few of my little strategies as well with what is there that we can actually do to help us to just get through it . Now , what are we talking about ? What I'm actually talking about here is high stress , which brings poor sleep . Now we can be doing rotations that are killing us plenty of overtime , really , really working under pressure , and Shift Workers you know that that's what it's like at the moment in many , many organizations , particularly in frontline health and emergency services they are working really , really hard and it's difficult and I've got your back , because today I actually want to talk about that as difficult as those situations can be and how we're going . Just some simple things that we can do or that we can understand that will help us to actually keep on going and get through these things . That will make a massive difference to how you come through it and come out the other side .
Speaker 1
I think one of the most important things , without any doubt whatsoever when we have poor high stress , we end up with poor sleep . Stress is impacting on sleep . Now , sleep , obviously , is my number one pillar . Anyone follows me knows that it's always all about sleep and getting the maximum amount of restorative sleep we can , because of the processes that occur when we do . But when we don't get that sleep , it actually throws two massive hormones in our body completely at a balance , and that is ghrelin and leptin . And today I just want to explain to you the role that those two hormones play so that you can recognize and understand , because recognizing and understanding is literally what makes a massive difference to our comprehension of where we're at and what we're doing , and we can actually manage it really well from there . So let's use the first one Now .
Speaker 1
The first one is ghrelin . Now , ghrelin is actually known as our hunger hormone . It is produced primarily in our stomach and there's also small amounts that are produced in our brain , small intestine and also our pancreas . Now , when ghrelin is elevated , we seem to be hungry all the time . All the time , don't we ? Have you ever noticed that when you go out late at night , or you have a late night and then you've got to get up early that when you go to work , one of the first things that actually happens is you are starving , hungry . You just can't stop eating . And what do you crave ? Highly palatable carbohydrates and fats . You will eat anything that you can get your hands on . It's generally less than nutritious food , but you are still always hungry because those foods are not what actually sociates us , and that is a massive problem . So when we have poor sleep , ghrelin which comes from our stomach is elevated . So I want you just to keep that in mind just for a second .
Speaker 1
Now , the other hormone that balances out with ghrelin is known as leptin . Now , leptin is known as our personal trainer . Its main role is to regulate our fat storage and how many calories you eat and how many you burn . So it is a hormone that is released by , believe it or not , our adipose tissue , which is our body fat . Now , it makes sense when you think about it , because leptin is what helps us to maintain our normal body weight , by giving us the sensation that we are associated or , in common language , that we are full . Now it is most important that we acknowledge both of these , because when they are out of whack , it then causes us to want to eat and it is tricking us into thinking that we absolutely need to eat .
Speaker 1
Now , these are just hormones . They have got no power over you , although you think they do so the next time that you are seriously tired , seriously fatigued , and you think , oh my god , why am I so goddamn hungry ? I am really , really hungry and I cannot fill myself up . I want you to keep in mind ghrelin . That is what it is . It is just a hormonal imbalance in your body at that time , which has come about due to chronic fatigue and lack of satiation . So keep that in mind . Now , shift workers , you will be able to relate to this , those of you that do night shift how hungry are we ? Around 3 to 6 am you eat anything inside and that is low leptin and high ghrelin . And what do we crave ? Of course , highly palatable carbs and fats . There is no doubt that that is one of the biggest problems . Now .
Speaker 1
During the week , I have had some real struggles and mentally it has been a very , very taxing and very draining week , but what I have done is I have focused on the main pillars as much as I can . I had a few nights where I had very , very little sleep . I tossed and turned and it was stress that was doing it . And even myself who will tell you this is what you do ? Yep , no worries at all , this is what you do . Yep , this is what you do as well . Yep , everything's rainbows and unicorns . I struggled and I really , really struggled , and it was not an easy week in any way whatsoever , but the one thing that I can do is well , certain things were out of control and I could not control them . There are always things that I can control , and it's imperative that I do , and I'm going to go through some of those things .
Speaker 1
To start off with Now the first one , one of the most important things that we need to do is , even though I haven't slept or slept well , it is still goddamn daytime in the morning . So I get up and I get that light early Sky before screen . What's the point in having a body that you haven't slept because of stress and opening your phone up only to be more stressed by whatever you see or read or look at or anything like that on your mobile phone ? So what I did do was I focused on getting early light Now . It's getting lighter earlier for us now anyway .
Speaker 1
So what I tended to do was I tended to actually just open the blind and , even though I went back to bed and lay there and looked out of the window , I didn't touch my mobile phone and I just looked out of there and I just did some breathing exercises and I set my intentions for the day . This is what I'm going to do . This is how I'm going to achieve it , this is what I've got on and this is how I'm going to approach every single thing . I set my intentions . I'm going to get light . I'm going to get up , I'm going to go and get hydrated . I'm going to get some caffeine in . That'll make me feel better . It always makes us feel better . Don't worry about that . That's the use of caffeine . Then I'm going to go for a walk and I'm going to go to the gym and get those things in . These are my non-negotiables Really important . And to fuel that , to make sure that I got my right foods in at the right times during the day .
Speaker 1
Now we've got to remember , if you feel like I've had a bad night of sleep and I'm stressed and you decide to roll over and go back to sleep and you sleep half the day away and pull the doona back up over your head and keep doing that . All you're doing is desynchronizing your circadian rhythm even further . The more desynchronized it is , the more it impacts on your mental health . I can promise you that that is well researched . A desynchronized circadian rhythm actually impacts on mental health . Here's the other clincher your mental health actually desynchronizes your circadian rhythm as well , because you will be completely out of sync with day and night . Hence the reason why you have a lot of mental health problems people who were wandering around at night because their desynchronized circadian rhythm .
Speaker 1
What we need to do is we need to make sure that we're getting that early light and resynchronizing our circadian rhythm and telling it where it's at in time and day . Now , no matter how tired you are , no matter where you're actually at , you need to get up and you need to get that light and get that movement and hit your three Z-Gevers that tell your circadian rhythm where it's at in time and space . Remember , if you've had a poor night of sleep , the best way to get the next best night of sleep is to get up early on that day and get that early light , reset your circadian rhythm , get that movement to keep it going and the nutrition timing around breakfast , lunch and dinner time as well , and make sure that the food that you're actually eating is highly nutritious . Even when you come home highly stressed and exhausted , you've got to have simple foods in the cupboard that are ready to go Now . I had massive issues , but geez , it's not hard to pull a chicken breast out of the fridge , grill a chicken breast while you're steaming some vegetables or nearly every second person's got an air fry these days . You can chop up potato and carrot and you can put that in there . Carrot pumpkin , put that in the air fry . You can cook up a chicken breast , bake up a tomato , put that on it and you can get some green veg , which you've got in your crisper as well . There's no reason why you can't do that , and doing that actually is going to fuel you better . Everything nutritious food is going to help you a lot more than thinking , oh , I can't be buggered tonight , so I'm just going to order Uber Eats in and eating highly processed , sugary foods that are going to cause you all sorts of problems and make you feel worse . So the idea is to stay on track when you can control what you can control the work , the overtime , everything else that's going on around it , those additional shifts , the wearing down , having to run the family around , etc . Etc . They are things that are out of our control . But it's okay to say no to certain things and control what you can control . But I'm going to tell you one thing , and I'll tell you this quite categorically so that you have it very clearly in your head . That is that if you lounge around and stay inside and try to tell yourself , oh , I'm self caring for myself , you're actually sabotaging yourself .
Speaker 1
Now , as you go through the day , if you find yourself getting really quite tired like really tired and really pressured , set your alarm for 25 minutes and have a nap to release the sleep pressure . That won't impact on your sleep . Don't go to bed , take your teddy bear , pull your duna up around your neck and go to sleep in the darkness with your face mask and earbuds on and sleep for three hours , because all you're doing is causing more confusion for your circadian rhythm and it's going to cause you massive conflict inside your head . What you're seeing is not right . You will have slept and removed all the sleep pressure and then it comes time to go to bed at night . Oh , I can't sleep . Of course you can't . You can sleep 25 , 20 to 25 minutes , sleep as a nap . Just take the sleep pressure out and continue on , and then what you can do is you can then get back to bed at a normal time or it might just get you through the next shift . 20 to 25 minutes as a power nap is absolutely optimal . It's ideal , all right . So we've got light early , we get movement , we go for a walk in the fresh air .
Speaker 1
Hydration is another one that's super important . It's one of the things that we really forget when we are fatigued . But one of the most important things is to make sure that you're getting higher than normal hydration . Your digestive tract is stressed . It is also desynchronized and dysregulated . It's having all sorts of problems , and the more water that you put through it , the easier that your digestive tract will actually run . So movement , hydration , nutrition Nutrition is something that you must make sure that you eat at the normal breakfast , normal lunch , normal dinner time and if you are a snacker , between those , have a snack as well . The reason why we do that is because nutrition is also a trigger for our circadian rhythm to tell us where it's at in time and space .
Now I've covered those , but the one main thing that I haven't covered is the most important one the stress . Just remember one thing that I've taught myself over the years of latent , and that is Stress is always going to come and it's always going to be things that stress , but what you get to do is you get to choose how you react to stress , but you also need to manage your stress as well . It's no good thinking that certain things are just oh , I can't do that because it's just happy clap or I haven't got time for that . I'm going to call you out . That's absolute rubbish , because you do . There's a few things that I do in relation to managing my own stress , and it's been significant over the last three years in particular . But the one thing that I know that I can absolutely do was I took myself off to learn a meditation practice , and the meditation practice has made a massive difference to me in my life all around , and it does , and anybody out there that has a good meditation practice will totally understand the difference that it makes when you learn to meditate and be present in the moment .
Speaker 1
The other thing that's really important when it comes to stress and stress management is to practice gratitude around the things that you are really grateful for that are in your life , and it's important that you do that , because the more you notice and acknowledge the things that you're grateful for in your world of hell as a shift worker , the more you notice that you are grateful for . What will actually happen is the more your brain will see that and dismiss the things that are causing you the most amount of stress . And it doesn't have to be major events that are causing you that you have to look for to be grateful for . Be grateful that you've actually got a front door of your house that you can close and that you've got a roof over your head . You don't have to go far to walk and get water . You don't have to walk far to go and lie in your bed and you've got a comfortable bed and a nice pillow and a doonie that you can pull up over you . You've also got good food . You've got a great environment to be in . You've got people that you can reach out to and talk to . You've got all sorts of things like that going on .
Speaker 1
Also , be very careful and I've done a whole episode on this , but be very careful of the chat groups and the forums social media forums that you're part of that are actually causing you more grief , further grief , further problems and keeping you stuck in that moment . You need to get rid of all of that and or just ignore it during your times that you are finding that you're highly stressed and focus on the gratitude side of things . Learn a meditation practice . I cannot enforce this any more than I can possibly tell you . It is game-changing . Alright . So that's how I've coped with the last few weeks , the last week in particular , which has been significant . So let me just say this . So that's how you come out of it much better .
Speaker 1
There's things that you can't control , but there are also things that you can control , and it doesn't have to be major . If you can't get to the gym big deal . It doesn't matter that you can't get to the gym , but take yourself for a walk . Walking is well researched and shows that you know there's so many benefits to it . Being vertical and forward motion is very good for your mental health , but the fact that you're vertical and moving also is helping your digestive tract , which is under stress . So make sure that you're doing that and on that , keep that hydration , keep that movement , make sure you're getting that early light , keep that nutrition on your normal times and if you need to have that nap not sleep nap 20 to 25 minutes is all it takes . Yes , it's a struggle to get back up , but if you don't , then you are going to suffer from that sleep inertia and that groggy nurse and it will impact on your further sleep . Okay , wow , alright , that's it today . That's what I've dealt with , that's how I've been dealing with it and I've come out of it extremely well because I controlled what I actually could control .
I hope you found today's episode really helpful and , if you did , don't forget to hit follow so that you're notified if I drop any other special episodes .
Speaker 1
And also , if you found this one beneficial , pass on to your fellow shift workers as well , because it's really , really important and it's so important for the reach of the show that I bring this to you and to every shift worker solid , evidence-based strategies to thrive and not just survive while still working shift work . And keep those questions coming and remember you've got the power to be a true shift work champion and , as always , please remember to be patient and kind to yourself as you navigate the challenges of shift work and prioritize your mental health and well-being . I also want to thank you for tuning into a healthy shift . Keep moving forward 1% , one step at a time , and make yourself a healthy shift . Thank you for listening . If you enjoyed this episode , be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released . It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on . If you want to know more about me or work with me , you can go to ahealthyshiftcom . I'll catch you on the next one .
![[86] - Thriving in Shift Work: Nutrition, Hormones, and Self-Care Strategies Artwork](https://www.podcast.ahealthyshift.com/rails/active_storage/representations/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6MTc5Njc1Mjk4LCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--4e7045ac7c3f86c60c03e8aca86c10a4e660d013/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6eyJmb3JtYXQiOiJqcGciLCJyZXNpemVfdG9fZmlsbCI6WzYwMCw2MDAseyJjcm9wIjoiY2VudHJlIn1dLCJzYXZlciI6eyJxdWFsaXR5Ijo2MH0sImNvbG91cnNwYWNlIjoic3JnYiJ9LCJwdXIiOiJ2YXJpYXRpb24ifX0=--0b154cb6b88107719b1a277923d35676ba5519cc/Podcast%20Cover%20-%20July%202026.png)