Night Shift Workers and Mental Health

Speaker 1 0:00

It is time for all things to do with shift work than night shift . Here we go , gonna beat some sweet times Coming down the night shift .

Speaker 2 0:14

I bet you're singing right .

Speaker 1 0:18

Oh , I bet you're full of pride . Just a little bit too cool for school . I would have thought what a song . Night shift to the Commodore's . Roger Sutherland is here , a veteran law enforcement officer Been doing that for a few years now , coming up to about 40 . Roger shift workers have thrived . He helps them do just that , not just survive while working night shift . And Roger gives shift workers this great energy , should you choose to accept it , to really enjoy the world as we think it could possibly be ? Hello Roger .

Speaker 3 0:50

Good morning to you , Tony . How are you this morning ?

Speaker 1 0:53

Have you spotted the cricket ? Can you hear the cricket from where you are , from your side of the desk there ?

Speaker 3 0:58

No , I can not , but it's most entertaining watching those boys in the booth .

Speaker 1 1:03

Well , do you think it's about time that they did something , because I've never seen them so active ? Usually they sit there , as you well know , inside of that glass .

Speaker 3 1:16

You can see young Jake sitting up there at the back there . He's actually standing on the chair , so I'm not sure what that's all about . He'll be fine . Are you well and happy and ready to go ? You better believe I am . I'm absolutely thriving , not just surviving .

Speaker 1 1:31

Had some rest today , catching up , flying out tomorrow , but had a great catch up with family and friends and it is so joyful to do that and curiously and I say that in all sincerity , curiously I feel more energised for doing so .

Speaker 3 1:49

Well , this is where we talk about our mental health .

Speaker 1 1:51

And we get a little bit of that social help ?

Speaker 3 1:54

Absolutely , we've got to fill our cup . One of the things about shift work is , tony , is when you are a shift worker , it's really lonely , isn't it ? Like you know , you've seen the same people here , you see Ben and Jacob , and you know in and out , that's about it . You get to have a chat with Dennis as well , but other than that , what else do we get Like we're isolated from family , we're isolated from our friends , we're isolated , and it does have an impact on our mental health . So it's really good that you take the time to catch up with your friends , family , people that you haven't seen for a while , and just chill and relax with them to refill that cup again .

Speaker 1 2:35

It really helps , doesn't it ? It sure does , and I think that's . I think the thing for me is you sort of start to not crave that's the wrong word but you do miss the idea of having that regular contact , and that's why I always listen out when callers in the middle of the night call through and say , oh , they don't get out much , regardless of age group , they don't get out much . Well , they don't see anybody or they don't get to talk to anybody . I understand that's also the great joy of overnight radio . It becomes that wonderful sense of company for many thousands of people . I don't take that responsibility lightly , but I think it's there's something about . As humans . I think we need to engage , don't we ?

Speaker 3 3:15

Oh well , we need the interaction . We thrive on the interaction , tony . It's very , very important for us . We don't realise , as you've quite rightly pointed out , the people that are listening in now . It can be a really lonely existence for them as well , and it's an impact . And we've spoken about the reverse axis of night shift to mental health , mental health to night shift as well . It interrupts our sleep cycle . Once we interrupt that , we're in problems .

Speaker 1 3:38

Rog , we'll take some calls 1-336-93 . You're a shift worker . You've been a shift worker , a night shift worker , in the past . For how long were you working in overnight programs or as a shift worker ? You were getting in mid-afternoon and going right through , maybe until the early hours of the morning . In any role , it could be as a well , I'm just going through some of the lists , rog . It could be in the hospitals . It could be as a surgeon , a doctor , a trainee . We often talk about the fantastic work that nurses do . At 2 , 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning , when you're really feeling crooked in hospital , you might be in pain and you just think , wow , what am I going to do ? And then this angel comes into your room .

Speaker 3 4:15

It's incredible , isn't it Remember ? Last fortnight we had I can't remember her name now 37 years She'd been a nurse for . I'd love to have got her back on the line and have a big chat with her about the changes that she's seen , both physically , mentally and also over the time , over her journey in the hospital as well . It would be quite fascinating .

Speaker 1 4:37

One , double three , six , nine three . For the drivers out there , those of you that do short drives , long drives you might be driving an UB , you could be driving a truck . We want to hear from you as well this morning , wherever you are . One , double three , six , nine three , so long as your hands free and you're safe and you're able to have a chat , we would love to hear from you . Keep the text line ticking over one , four , double seven , six , nine , three , six , nine three , because we know , rog don't ? We drivers pay an enormous role in our economy and they often do it at this time of the morning .

Speaker 3 5:08

Absolutely . Now this is a really , really good discussion point . Last Wednesday I was actually at the pool doing my normal Wednesday walk in the pool at the hydrotherapy I do , and what I do is I just go and have a 15 minutes in the steam room with the motor mind and we then go and walk in the pool for an hour . And while I was walking in the pool , I was chatting with a truck driver there who had finished his overnight shift and if he's listening , thank you , because we did talk about that and I said to him to have a listen in for this week .

Speaker 3 5:37

Anyway , what I'd noticed was interesting was he was actually in the pool relaxing after his long shift and just doing the walk backwards and forwards , which helps to prepare him for sleep . And I thought to myself now this is gold for him from a physical perspective . Now he'd been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and he had been started this routine of walking in the pool and obviously had to modify his diet . But when you think about it , tony , shift workers in the trucking industry , very sedentary , overnight driving up and down the highway , commonly bored , eating highly palatable carbohydrates and fats , and they tend to develop a veranda . Would you call that veranda ?

Speaker 1 6:21

That's a nice way of putting it . A veranda .

Speaker 4 6:23

A veranda , Two fats , two fats two fats .

Speaker 3 6:27

Yes , that's it the veranda , the veranda , and people do do that , truck drivers do that , and what I thought what he was doing was ideal and this is for our truck drivers out there , whereas we tend to say go home , go straight to bed and get your sleep , if you finish your shift and you can drop in by a pool that's got a hydrotherapy , or you got a pool that you can walk up and down in , by doing that , with that resistance of the water , it's actually going to burn the triglycerides out of your bloodstream . Just by a slightly elevated heart rate . It'll burn the triglycerides out of the bloodstream . It'll also really relax you you know how you feel after you've been for a good walk in the pool which will improve your health out of sight . It will relax you , ready for sleep , but it will also get rid of those triglycerides , which is the fat in our bloodstream which is naturally elevated by the body overnight . So there's one for our truck drivers .

Speaker 1 7:20

What about a bloke or a woman get home , I don't know . Three , four , five o'clock in the morning . We'll get to Christian in just a moment . I bet he's got a couple of stories . I bet You're feeling probably less than invigorated . Do you really want to go for a walk or you're just craving a rest ?

Speaker 3 7:35

I understand that people crave the rest , but let's have a think about it though . We have elevated triglycerides , which is fat in our bloodstream overnight . If you go to bed on that , what's going to happen to it ? The body goes , oh okay , we don't need this , so it just parks it as body fat . That's the problem that we have there , tony . So we want to make sure that , even if we just went for a bit of a walk around the block I mean , if you live in a um , in an ethnic community which I do , um , where I live you always see them walking after dinner at night to burn that glucose out of their bloodstream and just get it flowing , and you always notice that Um , and you know , the Italians and the Greeks are known for going for their walks after dinner , and there's a very , very good reason for it Mediterranean style of living , tony .

Speaker 1 8:16

Yeah , and it's very true . I noticed that years ago where you went to uh , you know you might be in Italy somewhere , for example having a visit uh they weren't going home at seven o'clock having something to eat . Going home and then just sit in front of the telly watching sale of the century they do that they were out and about until six , seven , eight , nine , 10 o'clock at night and joined the great weather and walking and engaging with people .

Speaker 3 8:34

Absolutely they do they . They hold hands and walk along beautifully .

Speaker 1 8:38

Uh , one double 3693 . Christian , you stay there , we'll come to you . Oh , hopefully we'll come to you as well . Come and join the program . One double 3693 . I'm Tony McManus . Roger Sutherland is here . It's all to do with working shift , the challenges , the highs , the lows . It is Australia overnight . No , you're not a great fan of cricket , but I think you would remember the name Sir Viv Richards .

Speaker 3 8:57

Absolutely .

Speaker 1 8:59

Uh , what a player , what a name , what a contributor to the great game of uh cricket is having a birthday today , 72 . And I wonder whether those wonderful elite sports people over the years the things that you and I talk about uh would have been uh considered in terms of rest . We always talk about exercise for those elite athletes , but how important in their um uh regime would it be about just taking rest as well and making sure that they're resting well ?

Speaker 3 9:25

Well , it's interesting that you say that now , because sports science is heading in the direction of sleep as a priority , so they're spending an awful lot of time spending uh educating uh elite sports people around the importance of sleep and how much sleep to get and how to get it .

Shift Work and Health Challenges

Speaker 3 9:44

I did enjoy that text about Jeff Boycott , though . Uh , tony , can you see that one ? The cricket is this cricket is going to take some shifting . Here's a real Jeff Boycott . I thought that's brilliant , brilliant . Very much Thanks , I haven't seen that it's good .

Speaker 1 9:57

But thank you for reading that out , christian . Good morning and say hello to Roger . I don't know whether you've met uh . Christian's a regular contributor to the program . Uh drives most of the night , has a large family . Lots of other considerations food , diet , uh sleeping , spending time with the fam all of the above Go ahead , christian .

Speaker 5 10:15

G'day boys . How are we ? You'll have spoken a number of times .

Speaker 3 10:18

Yes , christian , good morning to you . How are you ? This is Christian , the truck driver with the six kids .

Speaker 5 10:23

That's me , that is impressive . Seriously impressive , it is it is Well , you know , it was fun at the time , but , uh , you know , now it's just the uh , the parenting Well , that's why you're working the road at night , isn't it ? That's exactly right . Exactly Peace and quiet .

Speaker 3 10:39

You want some peace and quiet . What ?

Speaker 1 10:42

are the ? What are the ?

Speaker 5 10:42

challenges for you , christian . The challenges in what ? In what way ?

Speaker 1 10:47

Well , in terms of the combination of resting and , yeah , when I want to get home .

Speaker 5 10:51

I just want to go to bed . I just can't .

Speaker 1 10:53

We've just lost the line there a bit , mate , just say that again . I said that word exercise . What the ?

Speaker 5 10:57

hell was that .

Speaker 3 11:00

What about if you changed it to movement and you literally just did some sort of movement ?

Speaker 5 11:04

Well , I do do a little bit of movement , but yeah , I just want to get home and go to bed . Yeah , of course . What time would you finish ?

Speaker 3 11:09

Christian .

Speaker 5 11:12

Well , so my house start . You know like I can start at three in the hour , four , five , six , seven , eight , and I could be finished at , you know , 10 in the morning , depends on . It's bizarre really .

Speaker 1 12:16

We've got a bad line , christian , unfortunately . It's just crazy . I mean , those people that are doing those long haul , maybe 10 or more hours , it's just a real challenge . I reckon , Roger , how do you do it ? I'll tell you what I was catching the train into the city .

Speaker 3 12:30

Today I went out for an extended lunch and I there was a air hostess or cabin staff in full Qantas uniform there Clearly Long Hall because I was in the car . I was in the car because she had the two big bags with her . That's really hard work . I'm working with a client at the moment that is a Long Hall flight attendant . I've got to tell you it puts me absolutely to the test . It's what they do and how they go about . It is really really brutal .

Speaker 3 12:57

Quite funny a bit of a funny story for you . She has massive trouble sleeping . Now , tony , you've travelled and you know what it's like to travel on an aeroplane . While you're sitting there , bolt upright in your seat wishing that you could lie down , and while the cabin staff can go downstairs , get in their pajamas , grab their teddy bear and lie in their little capsule and have a sleep , they can't sleep . Can you believe it ? Like you can't sleep , like you can take your teddy bear and lie there , but they can't sleep at all . At which you know and a lot of them on long halls like this one was flying 13 hours they get a three hour break on their shift in between meal services and they take it in turns to go downstairs and they literally get into their pajamas and climb into the beds in those capsules and you just can't sleep , just cannot sleep , my god .

Speaker 3 13:43

I said just start thinking about the people that are upstairs sitting there in those capsules . I'd go to sleep straight away .

Speaker 1 13:49

Having a beverage . Judy in Croydon . Good morning , say hello to Roger .

Speaker 2 13:53

Hello , roger , and look , I believe your crickets are probably cicadas .

Speaker 1 14:02

Well , just we might have to get the vet and jet in Nathan coming in to determine what sort of animal it is , what sort of beast , what sort of insect it may well be . You could be right .

Speaker 2 14:12

I've had them behind my bed and in the bedroom a couple of nights ago . That got him during the day somehow , and then again another night and I found the answer is to spray them with coals crawling insect spray .

Speaker 1 14:31

And then that shuts them down and so they might go in for the big sleep . Judy , is that what you're saying ? Crawling insect spray ? Judy , thank you for ringing and telling us about that .

Speaker 3 15:08

Tony , I've got a question . Have a . How did it get in ?

Speaker 1 15:13

That's what we're trying to determine . How does it climb seven floors at least depending on which car park the cricket was using and not how does it climb seven floors to get up to the dub studio and pass security ? Yeah well , nobody does that .

Speaker 3 15:30

No , that's right cricket .

Speaker 1 15:32

We're going to see we get a name for the cricket a bit later on . I want to have a very serious question and that is to do with the , the idea of shift workers and their health . Is there a theory that those that work shift on an extended period of time for a period of time become more real more often ?

Speaker 3 15:53

Oh , absolutely there is . And one of the main reasons why a lot of shift workers are really suffering with and they fall down with everything they get the cold , they get the flu . They do just feel very , very ordinary , and one of the main reasons for this is because of the circadian misalignment . Our body counts on us getting that early light going through the day . We're a diagonal creature , so we need to be awake during the day and asleep at night . That's what it counts on .

Speaker 3 16:22

So what happens is is when we start doing night shift and the more shift work that we do and the more interruptions to that circadian rhythm , what actually occurs is it interrupts our gut microbiota as well , and the gut microbiota is actually where our immunity is combated . So overnight , while we're reading those highly palatable carbohydrates and fats and we've spoken about Jenny's cake as well Damn Jenny , but this is what actually happens it becomes very , very desynchronized , the microbiota becomes disrupted and therefore we don't hydrate properly , we can't get things through our system and we do fall ill quite a lot . That is a big problem .

Speaker 1 17:03

Desynchronized what a word .

Speaker 3 17:05

I know it's a beauty , isn't it ? Now , one of the first things , one thing that I do want to say to our shift working people is because we do 10 . The first thing that we do is we

Shift Worker Health and Sleep Tips

Speaker 3 17:13

run off to the pharmacy , don't we ? And we go looking for the horse radish and garlic , or we're slamming down anything that we can find in the pharmacy . But that's not the solution to it , and it really is not the solution , because I know someone won't be happy with us saying that , but it's actually not the solution .

Speaker 3 17:33

The most important thing is to get that really good , sufficient , restorative sleep , because this is where our body resets , this is where our body detoxifies . This is where it's really , really important for us so underrated the impact that poor sleep has on our immune system . The other thing is we want to put a nutrient dense diet in as well , so we want to be getting all our Mediterranean style of foods , you know good carbs , good fats . Nuts , seeds , legumes the carbohydrates look just really good stuff Olive oils , the things that are really going to look after us fruits and vegetables by the dozen . You know . We want to be making sure that we're getting all those in , because all of these are feeding that gut microbiota and they're also putting those nutrients into our system , which is actually going to keep us going really really well and look after it . Hydration , high hydration . Your body is working really really hard to literally detoxify . If you don't flush that out , then the body it just keeps on floating around in the system .

Speaker 1 18:39

Speaking of which , I'm going to go get a cup of water now . I promise you I'll do that right now when we come back . More of your calls 1-3-6-9-3-29 minutes away from one Just gone midnight via 5AA in Adelaide , in South Australia . Good morning to you . The ACE radio network , it is Australia overnight , good morning . Good morning , it's Roger Sutherland . He comes in every couple of weeks and we talk about the shift workers , those that work often overnight or any form of shift work , really 1-3-6-9-3 . If that is you , we want to hear from you . When did you do it ? How long did you do it ? 1-3-6-9-3 . You know , sometimes you're going into the office and you did this for a long time yourself , roger . Well , you just knew that it was going to be a day where you felt almost a little foggy . Is it true that you can maybe oversleep ?

Speaker 3 19:29

Yes , there is too much sleep . You can have too little and too much . The perfect balance for sleep and shift workers are going to laugh at me , they'll scold me for this it's between 7 and 9 hours , obviously . That's the recommended dose of sleep . So that's what we want to try and get . If you get too much , it depends on , in all honesty , tony , it depends on when you actually wake up , because you can wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle . A lot of people will stir every 90 minutes as they go through their sleep cycles . We have an ultradian rhythm which runs every 90 minutes , and if you wake up in the middle of one of those ultradian cycles , then what actually happens is that's when you get that brain fog . It's called sleep inertia , and while people have got sleep inertia , it makes it very , very difficult for them to get going . So , yeah , and you can have too much sleep , it's a problem If you're having too much sleep or you need too much sleep . You're not sleeping properly .

Speaker 1 20:22

Christian , I think we've got you back down . Do you have a question ? Fire away with Roger .

Speaker 5 20:26

Right , yeah , so you were asking how many hours I do yeah , that's right , yep . Okay , so I can start from 3 in the afternoon and finish at 9am in the morning . It depends on my shift start and depends on where I'm going .

Speaker 3 20:40

That's a long shift . So if you're finishing at 9 in the morning , one of the biggest problems that you're getting there to Christian is you're getting exposed to that morning light as you're driving home to get back to bed , and there's a very careful balance there with you as well , isn't there ? Because you could literally stimulate that circadian rhythm back into oh , it was supposed to be awake and make it hard to sleep . How do you sleep during the day ?

Speaker 5 21:07

When the kids are at school , fantastic , the kids aren't at school . So when I get home , look , everything's dark in the room . So I'll sit there , have breakfast with the other half and then I'll go to bed , and I usually get . So if I get home at , say , 8 o'clock , I'll get up about 2.30 in the afternoon , get ready for work , if that's if I start at 5 . It just depends on the air . It's hard with the shifts and where I'm going , because I travel all over the state .

Speaker 3 21:36

You do five days , do you yeah ?

Speaker 5 21:39

five days , so I do Sunday and Thursday .

Speaker 3 21:41

So what do you do on the days that you're not working ? Christian , oh great question .

Speaker 5 21:46

What do I do , right ? So on the Thursday night when I finish work , the Friday morning I'll try and stay up as long as I can and spend the day with the other half , and , yeah , I'll spend time with her , and then I'll fall asleep and go to sorry boys . I don't know what these truck drivers do .

Speaker 1 22:07

Thank you for sharing .

Speaker 3 22:09

Lucy was diplomatic with his response . It's better than me .

Speaker 5 22:13

Yeah , and so I'll stay up with her all yeah , as much as I can on the Friday , and then I'll sleep . So I'll probably go to sleep on this Friday night about 7.30 and I'll sleep till about 10.30 Saturday . And then I'll try and spend as much time as I can with the family before I go back to work on the Sunday .

Speaker 3 22:33

Did you say you'll go to bed at 7.30 at night on the Friday and wake up at 10.30 on Saturday morning ? Yep .

Speaker 5 22:39

And I'll sleep right through I will not stir 13 .

Speaker 3 22:43

Hours .

Speaker 5 22:44

Really , yep , I will not stir Dead serious If I do it that way .

Speaker 3 22:49

Okay , it works for you .

Speaker 1 22:51

Wish I had that bladder .

Speaker 3 22:53

Yeah , so do I . Phenomenal , that is absolutely phenomenal and I would recommend , christian , because you're doing that , I would absolutely recommend that you continue doing that . But I wouldn't recommend to someone starting out to actually do it that way because you've been awake for such a long time . The potential to have an accident or make a mistake even just cutting an apple you could make a mistake . It's like being over 0.05 the longer you're awake . Really bad , but if that works , I can feel that .

Speaker 5 23:26

I can feel it . That's why I've got the other heart . She looked at it .

Speaker 1 23:29

She's a good girl .

Speaker 5 23:30

Yeah , she's a good girl and that's what I do . And then I'll do what I need to do on the Saturday . I'll go through night bed , say 10.30 on a Saturday night . I'll sleep till maybe 8 o'clock Sunday . You can then go back to bed , say about 1.30 , get a couple of hours in before I start my Sunday night shift .

Speaker 3 23:52

You're crushing it , christian . That's absolutely fantastic . Let's make a note of Christian's other half as well , because she's got to run around and look after those six kids

Balancing Work and Sleep Quality

Speaker 3 24:03

while he's working overnight . She's there by herself while he's working overnight . And we forget about the other halves , tony . We forget about all of our partners that are home sleeping . They're alone while we're off working at night , running around trying to keep children quiet while we're sleeping , and things like that . So it's really good in my book that Christian does stay awake on the Saturday to chip in and just pay her back for that as well and just spend the time with her and do all those sort of things . So well done , christian . I think you're balancing it really well , well done , christian .

Speaker 1 24:32

Thank you for that . It was an amazing call a couple of weeks ago where we had that woman who said that she'd been doing it for a long time , as you mentioned earlier , rog , where you know that comes at a price for the time you get to spend with the family . The time you don't get to spend with the family , the contribution that they have to make to the family without you being there , I mean , it's just so many elements to it , isn't it ?

Speaker 3 24:58

Yeah , but let's not look at the downside as well . No , that's true . Yeah , that's true .

Speaker 1 25:02

Exactly , there is . Chelt them , Greg . Good morning .

Speaker 4 25:06

Oh , good morning . Look , I'm an old guy but I have done shift work over my life . The quick point I wanted to make to everybody is that quality of sleep Now sometimes you can get If you are doing shift work you're under a certain amount more amount of stress , but sometimes you can get a one and a half hour sleep and that will , if you go under and really sleep , that can be just as good as a 10 hour sleep on another day . You've got to , and even if you can't get that sleep in at least one in five days you've got to get that one sleep where you really go under and sleep . That's spot on , absolutely spot on .

Speaker 3 26:03

Sometimes it can be 15 minutes .

Speaker 4 26:06

Sometimes it can be an hour and a half .

Speaker 3 26:08

Yeah , greg , you're absolutely on the money with that and people need to be aware of that as well . We always aim for seven to nine hour sleep , but sometimes you can get three hour sleep , which is absolute quality . Like it's not enough , because we've got to understand that our body's got to go through all of those cycles while we're sleeping and we'll talk about that at another time too , tony , when we talk about medications and what they do to us while we're sleeping . But if you are getting those 90 minute cycles of sleep , your body goes through different stages which really , really set you up . So , greg's absolutely on the money there . You can get a good three hour sleep , come out of it . And , as you know , some people need a lot of sleep , some people just don't .

Speaker 1 26:50

Yeah , I don't know where . They often hear people say oh you know , I need a lot of sleep and yet one of the regular calls was I think it was yesterday , might have been the morning before Tanya who said now sleep's highly overrated .

Speaker 3 27:03

Oh no , no , sleep is overrated .

Speaker 1 27:05

Five hours and I'm really good to go for the day . I'm the ever ready bunny .

Speaker 3 27:09

Yep , she absolutely can be my mentor at the nutrition school that I did my study by nutrition . He's one of those people that hardly needs any sleep at all and thrives on it . But yeah , a unique character , someone that can do that . It's not common . It recommended for majority of the population is between seven and nine hours . Any longer than that , you're not sleeping properly , any less than that , and you're not getting enough to actually look after your own body .

Speaker 1 27:39

Food , glorious food . It's all part of the package too , isn't it ?

Speaker 3 27:42

Oh yeah , food is food and food timing is the key when it comes to night shift , and that's where I coach people around what foods to eat at what times to optimize it so that you go into and out of sleep really well . You go into your shift and come out of your shift really well . It's super important . Nutrition is the absolute key .

Speaker 1 28:04

Food , glorious food . What next is the question ?

Speaker 3 28:09

Love it . Yeah , I don't thank you .

Speaker 1 28:12

We'll take more calls the other side . I'm just reverting back to the time where I auditioned for Oliver as a kid at school . Put on my very best performance .

Speaker 3 28:20

Please , sir , I want some more .

Speaker 1 28:22

Yeah , that's it . I did all that . Please Can .

Speaker 4 28:25

I have some more . I grew up on Oliver .

Speaker 1 28:29

Next did we love it . What a show . 1-336-93 , your calls . Don't leave us here alone . If you've got a question for Roger , anything to do with shift work , 1-336-93 , your calls . The other side of this , Roger , the aforementioned Tanya must have woken up just in time to hear her name mentioned on the radio as part of this segment and we welcome her to Australia overnight . Good morning , Tanya .

Speaker 6 28:57

Oh , good morning Tony , Good morning Roger , how are you ?

Speaker 3 29:00

I'm very well Tanya how are you ?

Speaker 6 29:01

Outstanding . Thank you . And no , I haven't just woken up , I haven't been to sleep yet . So , and yes , I do believe , Roger , that sleep is a little bit overrated for some people . Look , my husband needs about 100 hours

The Importance of Quality Sleep

Speaker 6 29:13

a night to sleep . I need about four , four to five , because I go into a deep sleep straight away . I don't lie down unless I'm actually going to fall asleep . I'm not going to lie there and toss and turn . I think that's a waste of time . I could be up doing something else . So I just go to bed when I'm ready to close my eyes and say OK , time to go to sleep . I think I'm asleep in about under 10 seconds . Sound asleep . My husband can't believe that I can fall asleep that quick .

Speaker 3 29:41

My partner hates me for that as well . Tanya I go to bed . I'm out like a light , straight away , instantly .

Speaker 6 29:48

Yeah .

Speaker 3 29:48

I'm unconscious , Unconscious I am .

Speaker 6 29:49

Anyway , as soon as I lay down and decide that that's what I'm ready to do , go to sleep , see you later . And I could wake up in four hours that I feel like I've had . Oh well , I'm not going to say you know , eight or 10 hours , because if I had that much I'd feel so lethargic , like what you're saying . I must wake up . Generally , then , if I have a big sleep in the middle of the sleep pattern because I feel like I've been hit by a truck , I have no energy , and that was tragic . If I have more than , say , six hours would be a mega sleep , mega sleep for me .

Speaker 3 30:21

Yeah , that's right . And you see , you're one of those unique characters or unique beings that can actually character . That was a poor choice of words , but you're one of those unique people that don't . Yeah , you're a character . Well , you're a character if you call in this show at this time of the morning .

Speaker 3 30:36

So you're absolutely love it , but you are literally one of those people that doesn't need much sleep at all because you get that quality when you do go to sleep . That's what not what a lot of people actually get and the shift workers , because there's you're in a normal rhythm when you go to sleep . Do you ever nap ?

Speaker 6 30:57

Well , occasionally I do , I might have napped in the car when I put in the driveway sometimes I might just close my eyes .

Speaker 1 31:05

I think I've mentioned that yesterday .

Speaker 3 31:07

I'm glad you're in the driveway .

Speaker 6 31:10

Yeah , I go . Gee , I'm home now , I'm so safe and I'll just turn the car off , stick that off and just close my eyes and bang , I'm unconscious . And then I get bang , bang , bang on the window . Can't you just leave the car , really , okay ? What time is it ? Well , you know it's five o'clock in the morning . Okay , I've been here a couple hours , that's all right . Safe , no problem . I just get out and then I go . I will have up now ready to go .

Speaker 3 31:31

Now I've done .

Speaker 6 31:32

Make the lunches , get ready .

Speaker 3 31:34

This is where , for people like our truck drivers and that , where they have their half hour break and they can actually get in a 20 , 25 minute , like we call them , power naps Huge benefit , massive , huge benefit to a power nap .

Speaker 3 31:49

It just flushes that adenosine out of the brain and gets us going again , really , really well . So yeah , the good old power nap , and if it's under 30 minutes it's ideal . If you go to an hour , you're going to wake yourself up right in the middle of one of those sleep cycles which you've spoken about and you get that sleep inertia where you just literally cannot get going . Anytime you wake up in the middle of one of those cycles it's going to cause you a massive problem . I would suggest with you , you're probably sleeping about four and a half hours it's about the third cycle of sleep and then you're waking up after that third cycle .

Speaker 6 32:26

Yeah , yeah , if you hear , probably that would be a bad enough . And even my doctor , she's pretty much the same . Like she said , as long as we get four hours of deep quality sleep , the rest , you know , I'd rather have four hours of deep sleep than have nine hours of restless sleep . You know toss and toss and I couldn't stand it . I just think that's just such a waste .

Speaker 1 32:46

Yeah , tony , you're working during the day , or how do you spend the day if you've ? You know , you obviously got some things that you're doing in excitement . I've got well .

Speaker 6 32:53

I have . I , you know , I'm in a run the house and I used to be teaching people how to drive all day , every day , but I gave that up a little while ago just to take care of my mom in the last couple of years . But I've still got the little kids . So you know , and I'm now doing a bit of work for another company , which is very strange to work to somebody else , but I'm doing some cleaning and I just say that's where I am now .

Speaker 1 33:17

Well , well on you , ed . Well , it takes a fair bit of energy . You've got to be alert if you're looking after mum . Yeah , it takes a fair bit of focus .

Speaker 6 33:23

I've got a family of four children and a husband and two puppy dogs in the house . And yeah , no , and look after cleaning the big centre down here in Mornington . But yeah , no , I'm fine , good as gold . And yes , I know what you were saying , roger , also that it is quite lonely when you're working at night because you can't , you know , just call anybody at , you know what's two o'clock in the morning and have a chat . But I don't know . I think my brain is so active thinking about what's happening the next day , the next , the day after that , what else needs to be done . I don't actually get that thought . I've got so much to do . I will never run out of things to do , like I .

Speaker 1 34:02

Tony , we all want to be you . We all want to be you . We do . I don't know about that .

Speaker 6 34:06

I don't know about that because my neighbours don't like me when I'm hedging the , you know , because the chains are out and I'm trying to get hedging at 3.30 in the morning . That's right , it's four o'clock in the morning , excellent .

Speaker 1 34:14

Tony , I love you lots . Thank you for calling in being part of the program , Tony .

Speaker 3 34:17

Thanks , tony , you're lovely to mention it .

Speaker 1 34:19

You can hear that sort of natural enthusiasm . Now the reality is probably that's not available . That level of enthusiasm is not necessarily available to everybody , or is it ?

Speaker 3 34:30

It's Well , it is available to everybody and we can literally rewire our brain . Now people are going to scoff at me for this , tony , but I can tell you now a gratitude practice . If you listen to Tonya , she's grateful for what she's got , she's grateful for her life , she loves what she's doing , she loves how she's going about it . And we literally do have . We can reprogram and rewire our brain to only see the good . We really can , and that's that reticular activating system .

Speaker 3 35:00

You know , when you go out and you buy your brand new red car and you've hardly ever seen a red car of that type on the road and then all of a sudden you've bought one and every second person's got one on the road , that's your reticular activating system operating . And the same thing happens that if you filter out the bad like if you keep on looking for the good and a gratitude practice every day , write down three things . Here's a tip write down three things every single day that you are grateful for , and it might just be the pillow that you put your head on , and the more you do that , the more a positive attitude like Tonya you end up having , and on very much the same as well , very positive in every area , but I've had to learn that over the last two years in a big way .

Speaker 1 35:43

Send me the pillow that you dream on G'day . Rodgers , Matt and the Calibru crew . Hey Rodgers , any tips for reaching or to stop reaching for the salty dry snacks ? And the midnight nausea hits anyway .

Speaker 3 35:55

Yeah , I would hope . Good morning to them too . They listen in fantastic . We absolutely love them . Any tips to stop reaching for the salty , dry snacks ? Here's a tip have a really good drink of water to start off with , and that's what I would be doing . You could literally be dehydrated . That's one of the first things and that could be causing the nausea . And also the other thing I would be doing , too is , if you're looking for a salty or a dry snack , I'd be looking for some electrolytes into that water as well and just putting some electrolytes in . I don't know if I'm a letter mention a product , but you know just something that's an electrolyte like a hydrolyte . Excellent , hydrolyte is an absolutely fantastic product to put into your water . Just one tablet every time you fill your water bottle and keep that salt and that potassium and manganese going through your system .

Speaker 1 36:49

We'll stay there . We'll let people know how they can contact you the other side of this , australia , overnight . Roger , a regular contributor , come and join us the other side of this . Hey , roger , roger , roger , if people want to contact you , drop a line . The best way to do that is through a healthy shiftcom .

Speaker 3 37:03

All one word . If you're looking for a healthy shiftcom , everything is on the website or please come over . Join the fun on Instagram at a underscore healthy , underscore shift . I coach shift workers one to one . Believe it or not , I've actually got two available positions for people If they're looking for some form of coaching . They want more energy to do the things that they love outside of their shift working life . I can help you .

Speaker 1 37:30

And you are here to be helped . You are .

Speaker 3 37:32

Sorry , I'm sorry .

Speaker 1 37:33

I mean you are here to help , hello my name is . Roger , and I'm here to help . One , one , double , three , six , nine three will be our telephone number when we come back . Roger , it is always a joy .

Speaker 3 37:44

Absolutely . Thank you so much for having me , tony , and thanks to everyone .

Speaker 1 37:47

Will you come back in a couple of weeks ?

Speaker 3 37:49

You're a smooth talker , I'll be back . I've got an arm like a warm Mars bar .

Speaker 1 37:53

Excellent . Have a good sleep . We'll be back after the news .