Roger Sutherland's Return

Speaker 1 0:20

We haven't seen him long time , long time . Love you long time . Haven't seen him long time , long time . Love you long time . Haven't seen you long time . Roger Sutherland , a healthy shift . As you may or may not remember , because it seems that long ago , veteran law enforcement officer , which means he was a copper for about four decades , roger these days does incredible things , including working very closely with those of us that work shift work . How do we survive the perils of the shift work ? It's what he does best and he gives shift workers more energy to do the things they love by sharing his energy drinks . You can have a look at the website , which is simply called ahealthyshiftcom . There are numerous resources there . Instagram at a underscore healthy , underscore shift . I think I've got all this covered right A Healthy Shift podcast on all platforms . And the enterprise is even becoming bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger , working very hard to grow it , as you do Nice to see .

Speaker 2 1:25

It seems like it's ages since you've been in here , oh well , you've been off travelling . Well , I don't know about travelling .

Speaker 1 1:31

Roger , you went home . I don't know . I've been travelling . This is my home , yes , Okay . However , I returned to catch up with daughters and grandchildren .

Speaker 2 1:41

How nice , young Blakey .

Speaker 1 1:43

During that time , little Blakey , who I really miss the kids so much . That's the downside . It could end up getting the better of me .

Speaker 2 1:51

Yeah , I can understand that the draw , because I've got two grandchildren on the way . I've got one and I've got another two on the way . My daughter's due in another month , oh gorgeous .

Speaker 1 2:02

I know I'm so excited that eight months has gone very quickly .

Speaker 2 2:05

Oh , it's flown , absolutely flown Any goss . Well , you've done well to drag me out of the cave . That's been home for the last

Building an Online Shift Worker Community

Speaker 2 2:15

month and a bit .

Speaker 1 2:15

Because what have you been doing ?

Speaker 2 2:17

I've been very , very busy . I'm building and have built and finished and launch on the weekend , on Sunday night , an online community for shift workers to hang , and I think it's something that's been really , really missing in our shift working community . I ran a 21-day challenge back in February and I had people join into the challenge . It was a free challenge . I did it to test the water to see , and the challenge was just for people to come and hang and learn from other shift workers , and I got shift workers from all around the world . Everyone was posting photos of them out on their walks in the snow and in Canada , in the UK , and also us down here in the summer , making each other very , very jealous . And it gave me a really good idea , because no one wanted to finish . It wanted to finish this challenge , and it wasn't like a challenge to lose weight or anything . It was a challenge to build some habits . Anyway , I got thinking and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it , so I've now built when you start thinking it can go anywhere now .

Speaker 2 3:24

And it did . It absolutely went . I went off on a completely different direction because I had ideas for the business as to what I was going to do , and I've gone in a completely different direction and I've built this community . Now that's online , that opens on Sunday . I'm really excited to get a group of shift workers into it and start educating shift workers with just to cut through all the noise of everything that's outside of shift work that's not relevant to shift workers , because things are very different for our shift working community . As you learn , it's learning about meal timing and we gain weight very quickly and easily . What should we be eating ? When should we be eating ? When should we be eating ? How should we exercise ? How do we exercise ? How can we structure ? I'll educate on that .

Speaker 1 4:10

Well , and it is all very important .

Speaker 2 4:12

I think earlier in the year I don't know whether I said to you , but I certainly said on air the fact that I'm trying to lose some kilos .

Speaker 1 4:19

But you think that it's going to be a little easy . Yep , but given that you're working these time of days , this time of the day , it's not quite as straightforward as I thought it might have been . However , it's been working so far , so well . My dear friend Carl Langdon could play a bit of footy in WA for the Eagles . Kl said well , why don't you try this program ? So for the last few days we started on this new program , which is fantastic , and lost 1.5 since last Friday . That's fantastic , which is good .

Speaker 2 4:55

So what's the program ? What are you doing ?

Speaker 1 4:57

I'd have to… .

Speaker 2 4:58

Think about it , get permission .

Speaker 1 5:01

You'd have to seek permission . No , I can , but it's a bit dull and boring to talk about . On , air . However yeah , you know , I'll allude to it very shortly yes but it's fantastic good and I feel more energized just from participating in it uh , does that make sense ?

Speaker 2 5:16

this is what I'm talking about with the community . You see , this is why a community is so important for people , because what we want to do is we want to make sure that . Well , research shows that when we're in a community , we're involved in a program or we're doing something , we are so much more enthused and it doesn't matter what it is if it's something where we're in a community environment or we're doing something that's structured , we work really really well to it , as long as it's something that we can do afterwards as well . So , once the program's finished , what do we move on to then ? Does it create that habit ?

Speaker 1 5:51

Very good point . Let's take a couple of calls , in no particular order . Are we going to Joe at this stage ? 133693 . Annette hello , good morning .

Speaker 5 6:01

Good morning . How are you two ?

Speaker 4 6:02

doing .

Speaker 1 6:03

We're really well . You know , roger , annette , don't you Annette's in beautiful Ballarat , the beautiful .

Speaker 5 6:08

Ballarat . How are you going , Roger ?

Speaker 2 6:09

I'm very , very well , annette . Thank you very much , that's good .

Speaker 5 6:13

And listen . I've got a surprise . When I went to the doctor a few weeks ago because I didn't think I had , they hadn't weighed I've lost nine kilos .

Speaker 1 6:21

Nine kilos . Nice Well done you they put me on .

Speaker 5 6:26

They said , no , you've lost weight . And I said but I'm eating Well . Lisa , my carer , comes every day , cooks my meals , because I get the ingredients . She cooks them no oil , a little bit of water or whatever you know , just to stop them sticking .

Speaker 2 6:40

And I just follow what she gives me to eat , and I think that's what's helping me .

Speaker 5 6:44

Definitely , definitely , and my diabetes is 5.9 as well yesterday .

Speaker 1 6:46

Oh , that's fantastic , I'm glad that's good , isn't ?

Speaker 2 6:49

it Absolutely Well done . And the more weight you lose , the more motivated you get too , don't you , annette ? Exactly , yep .

Speaker 5 6:57

I'm starting a class thing next Thursday to make cards because I do poetry and it's going to help me do it as well . Wonderful , and I love losing weight because it's making me feel better .

Speaker 2 7:08

It makes you feel better but you move more too , doesn't it Because ?

Speaker 1 7:09

you feel ?

Speaker 2 7:10

lighter on your feet .

Speaker 1 7:11

It certainly does , and it's always good to hear from you . We'll do this break

Diet and Weight Management for Shift Workers

Speaker 1 7:15

and when we come back , plenty of calls coming through , which is great . 133693 in the text line if you'd like to be part of that 0477693 . 693 . Well done , tone for losing a little bit of kilos , says David . Thank you , david . It's a bit of a way to go , and so it's not like I'm . Well , you wouldn't say that I'm overweight no , not at all .

Speaker 1 7:37

No , you're not overweight at all , but I just want to feel a little more Lighter , energised . Yeah , little more lighter , energised , energised .

Speaker 2 7:46

Yeah Well , after the break we can talk about that , because I want to talk about that circadian misalignment and how we learn to accept it as our new normal feeling , ordinary .

Speaker 1 7:54

Do you want me to tell you about the program that I'm on in terms of trying to lose a little more ? Do tell Spill so Langdon's of the View . Yes , more . Do tell Spill so Langdon's of the View , after an amazing amount of research , eat only anything with a face . Okay , that's interesting . Lamb , yep Seafood , yep Beef Chicken and that's it . Carnivore Carnivore diet yes .

Speaker 2 8:27

So you're shaking your head . I'm absolutely shaking my head because the research around it is Because why Elevated LDL cholesterol ?

Speaker 1 8:35

for a start , Right and we're back to square one .

Speaker 2 8:41

Really , oh , it's terrible , but I'm loving it . Oh yeah , yeah , I can understand that , but I also are in an evidence-based circle of nutritionists that are very , very good and the evidence against . I'll just send you some topics to have a read of . I think , unfortunately , with all of these different diets , with what we do and this is important to note I hate the word diet .

Speaker 1 9:07

We've got to change the word diet to behaviour .

Speaker 2 9:11

Well , no , because well , yeah , I agree with that . It's an eating style . Yeah , and I agree with that as well , because I mean , everything that we eat is a diet , whether you're trying to lose weight , gain weight , build muscle or whatever you're doing . What did the cavemen do ? What did the cavemen do ? They went out and hunted . They ate plants and they ate meat . Do we know they ate the plant ? Do we know they ate the meat ? I know they had to .

Speaker 1 9:34

They ate the meat , but did they eat plant ? That's a nice little plant . I think one of the most We'll take this home back . Cave what ? It's a pretty little flower . It's a bit chewy , we . We haven't invented fire yet , so we'll just eat it raw you .

Speaker 2 9:49

You won't beat me on the carnivore diet , I'm just absolutely . Yeah , I can understand why people look at it um , but unfortunately we have confirmation bias in every diet everyone has and like um , and I'm not going to criticize , but the situation is , because they're such advocates for it , they only see the positives for it . They don't see the negatives . But there's some horrendous evidence around the carnivore diet . In fact , even some of the biggest carnivores to date have gone away from it because of their LDL cholesterol reading . Jeremy , good morning .

Speaker 4 10:25

Hi , how are you Well ? Good morning , Hi , how are you Well ?

Speaker 1 10:26

thank you .

Speaker 6 10:29

Hi , I'm just calling up about the thing about night duty . Yes , please .

Speaker 1 10:35

What's your situation , Jeremy ?

Speaker 6 10:37

Yep , so I'm a nurse of 31 years . I did 25 years of night duty . I'm lucky enough now to work Monday to Friday weekdays , but most of my night duty was in intensive care and some when I was actually training in a nursing home to put myself through . And some of the things I just wanted to bring up is yep , it still affects my sleep . I often end up with the fact that I can't get to sleep . Also , having worked in ICU , there's actually a syndrome called ICU psychosis , where the patients are actually sedated and necrotized but we have the lights on and all the noise and everything , so they don't actually get proper sleep . They don't go to a full REM sleep because it's actually medications holding them in their sleep and then when we wake them up and try and extubate them or take them off a ventilator machine , they actually become quite psychotic .

Speaker 4 11:46

Jeremy stand up and take a bow .

Speaker 2 11:50

Take a bow , Jeremy . Take a bow because this is one of the biggest problems in hospitals today and it is . It's a massive problem that the light that is there during the night . Now , as Jeremy has flagged , these patients are sedated , but those intrinsic ganglion cells in the eye are still registering the light and registering the blue , so therefore it's disrupting their circadian rhythm . So what this does is it causes mental health disorders in people by people being awake at the wrong times and things like that if you're not vigilant . So this is why what Jeremy says is , when they wake them , they can be quite psychotic , because they're so desynchronised from the real time of when they should be awake and when they should not be awake . And this all comes down to the light exposure . And as soon as Jeremy I was hoping he was going where he was going with it and he did , he went there and that's why you saw

Sleep Challenges for Healthcare Workers

Speaker 2 12:45

me .

Speaker 1 12:45

So what about the authorities and the people that work in that area ? Are they not across this information ? Is this new information ? Is it information that is not accepted by everyone in those industries ?

Speaker 2 13:01

I can assure you that majority of these industries , particularly hospitals , are well and truly aware of the impact of this artificial light at night on patients . It should be total darkness and it should be all daylight light during the day or blue light globes during the day that have a greater than 20% blue 20% blue in it so that it's providing the correct blue light to synchronize the circadian rhythm . People would be in hospital a lot less time if the lighting was adjusted to circadian lighting . And the book the light doctor , which is written by Dr Martin Moore-Ede , who's a Harvard professor who's written this book . It is a phenomenal read .

Speaker 2 13:49

It's a terrifying read when it talks to you about the light . But he talks about circadian lighting in places where the blue is removed from the light and during the day sorry , at night it's still light . You can still run an operating theater , clear light , no problems , but there's no blue in it . So therefore the body doesn't register blue light and doesn't know that it's awake . We are learning more and more about circadian misalignment and getting our light diet right . We have to get this light right and what Jeremy has said . In fact there's research in the book the Light Doctor that talks about patients that are on the eastern side of a hospital , compared to patients that are on the western side of a hospital , Right sunset , sunrise , correct , and the patients that are on the sunrise side repair and get out of hospital a lot quicker than the patients that are on the opposite side .

Speaker 4 14:42

True story .

Speaker 2 14:42

Absolute true story . So the patients that are on the sunrise side are always out of the hospital and recovered quicker than the ones that are on the sunset side .

Speaker 1 14:52

Your most critical say of this studio , where we're surrounded by lots of screen . Three of the big ones , of course , are in fact Bright blue , Bright blue .

Speaker 2 15:02

It's actually oh no , I won't say that . Yeah , it's something that really needs looking at At night for you , for your health . That screen should not be on for blue . You should not be seeing any blue light . And in fact , you see that I come in here and I'm wearing blue light blocking glasses in the studio at night when I come in here , purely because of all this blue , you look like you're the front man of U2 .

Speaker 1 15:24

U2 .

Speaker 2 15:24

I do . I look a bit bono , you do . But I can tell you now I'm looking after my health and when I go home I will go straight to sleep because there's no blue . And that is the key . Now , what Jeremy has said also , which is an interesting topic , is , after all of those years of shift work he still struggles to go back into a normal , regular circadian cycle and it took me a little while but I'm now absolutely there . I'm in bed by 9 o'clock but then I don't have any blue light in the house after sunset . So we have like red globes , orange globes in the house , which is like that sunset look Nice , feel in the place . It's a really nice dull feel and by 9 , 9.30 , we're out in bed and out like a light and then waking up at I get up about 5.30 , 6 o'clock in the morning and I get early light . The key is to get that early light for the first 20 minutes within 20 minutes of waking up and for a minimum of 20 minutes getting that daylight .

Speaker 1 16:26

The more in line we are , the better we feel , but we shift workers are going to bed .

Speaker 2 16:30

At that time you say you're getting up , we're going to bed during that early light and we don't get enough natural light , and we don't realise and this is what I wanted to say to you just before we went to the break before too as we start to flatline , it becomes our new normal and we don't realise how much we've flatlined compared to how we were feeling when we weren't doing the night shift .

Speaker 1 16:53

Come and join us the other side . A couple of questions up for grabs . If you could change one thing about your history as a shift worker , what would that be ? One thing you could change as a shift worker . What would that be ? One thing you could change as a shift worker , what would that be ? Or those of you that have ever done shift work if there was one thing you could have changed , what would that be ? And what's the biggest challenge you face each and every night as a shift worker , wherever you are right around Australia ?

Speaker 1 17:15

It could be 6pm in Perth , 3am here in Melbourne , 5am in Adelaide and good morning to Leafy . He here in Melbourne , 5aa in Adelaide and good morning to Leafy . He's probably just jumped into the Volkswagen and be home by now . Keep those texts coming . Got one there from Leaf Forest , we'll get to that . Oh no , we can talk about this one because he makes the point . He says good morning Tony and Roger . Tonight on 5AA the news came up exercise before bed is not so great for us , so I think it was in the news as well . Elevated heart rate not great for sleeping , yes or no , roger ?

Speaker 2 17:47

We should not exercise just before bed or within a few hours of bed . It stimulates our central nervous system as well , and it does actually impact on our good , restorative sleep . Excellent so no star jumps . As Lee says , there's no star jumps just before you get into bed no star jumps .

Speaker 1 18:05

Should we stop the star jumps before bed ?

Speaker 2 18:07

Yep , that's funny You've got to stop doing it . I've told you about that . You've got to stop doing those star jumps before you climb into bed .

Speaker 1 18:13

Star jumps Rob in Melbourne . Good morning .

Speaker 3 18:17

Morning . How are you guys going ?

Speaker 1 18:18

Do you do the start jumps just before you nod off Rob .

Speaker 3 18:22

Mate . No truck driver , mate , I'm a bit beyond the start jumps . No , I wouldn't change shift

Light Exposure and Circadian Rhythms

Speaker 3 18:30

work , for you know , I prefer to do shift work , just earning the extra money for not doing anything different .

Speaker 2 18:35

There's always an upside to the shift work isn't there ? It's the extra money . What else is it that you love about it , rob ?

Speaker 3 19:37

It just gives me the freedom . If I need to go to the bank or something , I can get up in the morning , go do what I have to do , then go back to bed , rather than losing an entire day's wages to go do running around groceries or stuff like that I love it .

Speaker 3 19:53

I've been on shift work for a few years now . What got me into it was I worked for a specific company in New South Wales . I transferred to Queensland when my daughter was born and then I got dragged in the office and said , hey , no one's getting the money you're earning here . Queensland's a cheaper lifestyle . They cut me wage $3 an hour and then I end up on the afternoon night shift to make up the money that I lost .

Speaker 3 20:17

And in the beginning , yes , it was difficult . You know , like get home from work , take the wife or the ex-wife to work , come home , feed my daughter , you know , spend some time with her , go to sleep for an hour , get up , go get the wife , come home , sleep and then go do the night shift . That nearly killed me , but in time I got used to it and what works for me now is learning when to go to sleep , because a lot of drivers they go to sleep as soon as they get home but then come close to when they're supposed to start work again they're asleep or they're tired . So it just yeah .

Speaker 2 20:53

Are you a good napper ?

Speaker 3 20:56

Yeah , I am actually . Yeah , Are you a good napper ? Yeah , I am actually .

Speaker 2 20:59

I think this is the key with shift work to be a solid napper , someone who's a really good power napper , that you can literally , just literally say I need a nap now and zone out for 20-25 minutes , come back again , just relieve that sleep pressure and it's really good . How surprised are people when you ring them up to make an appointment to see a doctor or a physio or something like that , and they say , oh , I've only really got Thursday at 2 o'clock available and you go , oh , take it , because they're not used to people being around being able to take those appointments during the day , especially when a guy rings .

Speaker 3 21:33

I reckon people being around being able to take those appointments during the day , especially when a guy rings , I reckon you know , like I've got to have my mandatory breaks according to my logbook , and that I mean you know I have half hour , okay , my breaks up , drive halfway down the road and I still feel like crap . So I mean no , the law , I mean my boss can't you know ? Hey , hurry up and get to where you're going . They understand , they'd rather you , even if you have to have another 15 , 20-minute power nap , just get home safe . So I'm lucky in that sense . I don't get pushed to make deadlines , Just get there when you get there and get there safely .

Speaker 2 22:14

So when you do that five hours and then you've got to have that half-hour break , Rob , do you power nap in that time or do you just get away from the truck ? Which way do you go ?

Speaker 3 22:20

Well , I actually quickly fill out my logbook and recline the seat back and close my eyes for half an hour .

Speaker 2 22:28

Perfect .

Speaker 3 22:31

I do like to eat healthy , like salads and fruit and stuff , because if I eat something heavy one , it'll put me to sleep and secondly , I won't be able to find the toilet quick enough .

Speaker 2 22:41

Yeah , that's another problem too . It'll affect the diet as well . Well , this is a problem with that circadian disruption and working overnight as well , because our system's not ready for it . So therefore , it does actually create a bigger problem , doesn't it ? It can upset your gut really badly .

Speaker 3 22:58

Yeah , it sure does , Like I mean depending on the shift , because , like , say , I had a meal before I got to work and now I've got a can or cup of soup and some fruit and some nuts , so it's something to snack on while I'm driving . So when I actually have my break , I can utilise that whole half hour to close my eyes rather than having something to eat . And then you've only got five , ten minutes to close your eyes , sort of thing .

Speaker 2 23:26

You're all over it , rob . What you are doing is absolutely spot on . Well done , well done , and that's why you're doing it well and you enjoy it .

Speaker 1 23:33

Rob , just a quickie from me . Tony Mack , In terms of the relationship you talked about , the former relationship , Was that as a result ? Do you think of that change in lifestyle , of shift work ? Was that part of it ? I know it's a personal question .

Speaker 3 23:51

No , no , no , no , it's right . No , no , it's probably . I don't want to say it over the radio . No , no , Probably I don't want to say it over the radio no no . The ex-in-laws are listening , but that's nothing to do with the shift work .

Speaker 4 24:01

There you go .

Speaker 3 24:02

But I'm fortunate now my now wife . She's a shift worker as well and a lot of the times I'm driving into the estate and she's driving out , virtually high-fiving each other . But I mean , there's days where we go where the stars align , we have the same days off together , but other times we hardly see each other .

Speaker 1 24:21

So yeah , Good on you , rob . Keep in touch , great call , thank you . Thank you , see you , mate . It's interesting , isn't it ? From Rob on the truck .

Speaker 2 24:30

It's kind of funny when he says that you know . It's kind of funny when he says that you know , as one's coming into state , the other one's going out of the state and they wave to each other . Melissa and I used to do that . I'd be coming home from night shift and she'd be on her way in and we'd just flash the lights and wave and I'd work it out that if I could get back and get into bed quick enough it'd still be warm .

Speaker 1 24:50

There was a song about that , wasn't there a ? I think there was a Simon and Garfunkel song about that , where I'll think of it in a minute .

Speaker 2 25:01

It'll come back to me , but it sort of looks at that very scenario . Someone ?

Speaker 1 25:05

had taken my place along those lines . 133693 Lots of texts . I'm a dapper napper . I'm a dapper napper . I kip in black and gold silk robe . Can you sleep on a plane ?

Speaker 2 25:22

um , no , not really . Can't you not see , I can do that in a heartbeat .

Speaker 1 25:25

Can you really back from perth last week or the week before ? And uh , jumped on the bird . I reckon for the three and a half hour flight , the best part of two hours , uh right out of it .

Speaker 2 25:36

Do you wear a um sleep mask ? No , you're joking . That's fantastic . I've got my sleep mask and um , I don't do it because I work when I'm on national flights . I haven't flown international for a long time , but I've got a great sleep mask and I would use the sleep mask . But then I actually use what they call a time shifter app now to help to time shift into the new time zone so that when you get to where you're going , you're not suffering from that social jet lag .

Speaker 1 26:03

Well , I did that because we were on the first week doing a program from Perth . It was a three-hour time difference , yeah , so I adjusted my watch and the clocks in the studio over there , which they're probably still trying to reconstruct .

Speaker 2 26:14

They're still trying to work out what's going on . What's going on with the time . Did you wind it forward 10 years as well .

Speaker 1 26:20

Oh , oh , don't 1-double-3-6-9-9-3 . That'll get back . There'll be people in WA listening on 6PR . We've just offended the entire audience . No , no , I was talking about Victorians . Yeah , great , good on you , drew , hi Morning .

Speaker 4 26:33

Tony , good on you . How are you mate ?

Speaker 1 26:35

I'm good well , thank you .

Speaker 4 26:37

That's good Question . I I had a bit of a medical condition , still got it , but I can't sleep at night . What do I need to do to resurrect that ?

Speaker 2 26:50

Okay . So when you say you can't sleep at night , there will be a trail as to why . But one of the most important things that you need to do is to get back into sync with a normal daytime rhythm . So , early light , early daylight , get outside , grab that coffee , grab that caffeine and get

Truck Driving and Effective Napping

Speaker 2 27:10

outside about 7 o'clock in the morning , 7 or 8 o'clock , take yourself for a walk around the block . Make sure that you only eat at breakfast , lunch and dinner times at the normal breakfast , lunch and dinner time . But that early light is the absolute key . By getting early light , it triggers our circadian rhythm into its daytime now and it knows that in about 12 hours' time it's going to start getting dark or being dark . So it starts to anticipate that darkness , which then releases the melatonin and will help you to sleep . But you've got to be careful with the light that you're getting exposed to after dark as well , drew , that's the key , yeah well , it's just hard because I've sort of just got through radiation and things .

Speaker 1 28:00

So you've got lots going on , drew , yep .

Speaker 4 28:04

And I normally am awake at well . I'm awake now and I'll go to sleep till possibly 6 o'clock this morning , but then I'll sleep till half past 1 till 2 o'clock in the afternoon .

Speaker 2 28:18

And then you'll what ? Sorry , you'll sleep .

Speaker 4 28:20

I'll sleep till you know , half past 1 , 2 o'clock in the afternoon .

Speaker 2 28:23

See , this is the problem , though , drew .

Speaker 2 28:25

Like if you were to get up at six , like I know you haven't been to bed , right , but you're up now and there's that light around you any light at all that is around you , looking at your phone , doing things like that .

Speaker 2 28:42

All of that light and everything that you're using to keep you entertained , is actually tricking your body into thinking it's actually daytime , but what you need to be doing is putting something like a sleep mask on that's going to give you total darkness so that you can key your body into going to sleep and then in the morning , at six o'clock , seven o'clock , getting up and going out and taking yourself for a walk . Now , this is going to help you to recover from your chemotherapy and radiation treatment and things like that as well , by just getting out and taking that walk and getting your body back in sync with a really good , solid circadian rhythm during the day , and then , even if you've got to have a nap in the afternoon for 30 minutes or an hour and a half we sleep in 90-minute cycles , but then not having light at night is actually going to help your body to go back into a normal cycle , which is natural for a human being , it's not natural for you to be awake at night .

Speaker 4 29:38

No , no , it's not , and it's really really annoying because it is Obviously . I'm not working because of my medicine , because of some of the treatment .

Speaker 4 29:50

yeah , but it's just so annoying and you know , the missus just got home from hospital last night after she had a contractive pelvis and I've got things to do . But it sounds easy saying you know , wake up at six , have a coffee and go for a quick wander around the block , but you're just going to sleep at six and you're so tired . Yes , I listen to Ross and Russ for about half an hour and then I'm asleep .

Speaker 1 30:24

And that puts you to sleep . Don't Russ for about half an hour and then I'm going to sleep , and that's a good thing and that puts you to sleep . No , don't say that . Good on you , drew . You look after yourself . Keep in touch with the program Australia Overnight . I mean , there are so many people that listen to this program across Australia and one of the things many people say by way of an email or a text or a conversation is I do struggle to sleep overnight .

Speaker 1 30:44

So many people that I meet say never call the program but thank goodness that the program's there on 3RW for example Keeping me company . Keeps you company . Yes , that can't sleep . So it is an issue which has got to impact on the nation , the economy , I would imagine oh , massively as well and the health , the health of the nation Massively as well and the health , the health of the people .

Speaker 2 31:04

The health of the nation . Look , you hear Drew there talking about radiation therapy and chemotherapy and his wife's had a fall or something's happened there that's cracked her pelvis and she's had surgery and there's a lot going on there . So there's a lot of stress in his life too , which is actually creating a big problem in their life , which is another reason why they won't sleep . But there's always a whole gamut of things that are causing massive problems for people as to why they're not sleeping and , of course , a lot of the people that are listening to this program tonight and are overnight . The more that they're awake , the more it's impacting on that sleep . The more that they're awake .

Speaker 2 31:43

Somehow you've got to break into that cycle and start winding it right back until you end up back being a normal human being again , which I had to do after 40 years of shift work To readjust . Oh , totally . I had to be very disciplined in going to bed , sleep mask , going to bed , breath work , meditation , sleeping . I use a method that the Navy SE navy seals use to put yourself to sleep . You can be asleep within two minutes . Um , and I I use that method of going to sleep and sleeping , but then when I wake , I get straight up and get that daylight and get outside , get that coffee , walk around , get the daylight into the eyes . Um , it's our light diet . We've got our light diet wrong and , in fairness to some people as well , some people are extremely sensitive to light as well , whereas someone like you may not be , I may not be , but some people are , and research is actually showing that these people who are night owls you know , the people that can't sleep at night and the ones that listen to the program .

Speaker 1 32:44

now , I'm a night owl program .

Speaker 2 32:44

They'll probably say I'm a night owl . I'm a night owl , but what they are is they're incredibly sensitive to light , and that's what's been shown . It's not so much their circadian rhythm is out of whack , it's that they are very sensitive to light . So what we do is research . They took a group of campers out that were healthy people Some were night owls , some were morning larks and they took them out into the bush and took them out into the dark , with no electronic devices , no nothing

Resetting Sleep Patterns After Disruption

Speaker 2 33:15

. Everybody went to sleep within about an hour of each other and everyone woke up within about an hour of each other as well , and that is literally the light sensitivity which is causing the problems .

Speaker 1 33:27

Richie Nevada , a great friend of this program , says morning to you both . Healthy eating is pretty simple . He says the diet you need to include all essential nutrients . Fish will give you 32 of the 42 essential nutrients . Green veggies will give you the other 10 . You also need to do a lot of exercise throughout the day . Supplement with high doses of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin Cs that will prevent many diseases . Well , we sort of know that you can't catch , including arthritis , diabetes , depression , all those things that are intrinsically linked , and it's a fascinating study .

Speaker 2 34:05

Oh , it's incredible . And he's talking about fish , and fish gives you everything , but fish gives you omega-3 fatty acids as well . Hence the reason why they're fish oils , the omega-3s and vitamin C . We've got to be a bit careful with vitamin C . The doses of vitamin C that people take , we urinate out . We don't need it . The diet of vitamin C that we need is less than half a capsicum for vitamin C . A capsicum contains sufficient , or Richie's in Nevada , so a bell pepper , so half a bell pepper . A red bell pepper contains sufficient vitamin C for us for a day .

Speaker 1 34:46

Lots of things to talk about and we didn't do one comment with regards to the situation right across Australia in terms of crime . This morning we didn't even touch that .

Speaker 2 34:57

We didn't touch it . No crime . There's no crime there . There is no crime in Australia . For the last hour there's been no crime because I've been here . That's exactly right , and I want to send a cheerio to Nicky out there as well , who's out patrolling around . So that's why there's no crime , good on you , nicky , well in touch .

Speaker 1 35:13

Now the other thing we should point out because it's the Easter break and , as you well know , having attended , no doubt over many , many years , fatalities across this time of the year , it's worthwhile slowing down , take it easy . Don't get cross , don't become one of the statistics around Australia over .

Speaker 2 35:33

Easter ? Oh , totally . It's just the worst having to go and knock on someone's door and tell someone that they've lost a loved one . Did you ever get training in that ? No , oh , yes , we did . We had human behaviour training as to how to go about doing that Back in the day . I don't know whether they do now , but we certainly did . We had human behaviour lectures back then , back in 1984 . As part of training , Yep as part of our training ?

Speaker 2 35:58

Was it ongoing compliance ? No , there was never any ongoing training . I think it was on-the-job training after that , because no matter what you were taught you still every situation was different . Like we were told , you will get the non-believers . You'll tell someone and they'll go no and slam the door in your face . That's rubbish . Or you'll get the person that will just take one look at you and no know . It's amazing how you can go and knock on someone's door to just ask them if that's their car parked on the street and they're absolutely fine about it . But when you go to deliver a death notification , they just know . They just know it's a dreadful thing to have written all over your face . I'm sure of it .

Speaker 1 36:39

I couldn't imagine how you would do that as a copper for all those years . If people want to contact you , find out more about what you do , it's very simple .

Speaker 2 36:46

At healthyshiftcom . If people just go to the website there or at the Instagram at a underscore healthy underscore shift . Thank you again for having me tonight .