Speaker 1: 1:18

Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to a healthy shift. 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 rigours of shift work, but thrive. My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and wellbeing so they have more energy to do the things they love. Enjoy today's show. Well, hello there and welcome back to a Healthy Shift podcast.

Speaker 1: 2:00

I'm Roger Sutherland, and today we're going to talk about you got it sleep, but wait, don't turn it off yet, because not the usual. You've got to get eight hours story. Because if you're a shift worker I know you've heard this more times than you can count You've got to get eight hours. I can't. And if you're anything like me, it probably makes you feel like you're failing, because getting eight hours on night shift or after an early is near impossible. But here's the good news.

Speaker 1: 2:35

Today I want to talk about something that it's not just about how much sleep you get, but it's actually about when you get it and how consistent that timing is. Hold it, don't turn off yet going what. Would this bloke know? How do you get consistent sleep? You're being stupid, mate. Wait a minute. I've done it for 40 years. I know how to apply it. Let's talk about it. Hear me out the myth of eight hours. So let's get something totally straight and put it on the table here.

Speaker 1: 3:10

Seven to nine hours or eight hours is a general guideline, but it's not a rule that is actually carved in stone. That number has come from studies on people who live a regular nine to five life. Is that you? It's absolutely not. You're on nights, you're on earlies, you're on late. Hell, we can be on all three in the same week, can't we? And here's the thing Hell, we can be on all three in the same week, can't we? And here's the thing Chasing eight hours of sleep at any time of day or night can literally backfire.

Speaker 1: 3:42

And I want to explain in this podcast how. Because sometimes forcing yourself to stay in bed and sleep for hours longer than your body actually needs, or trying to sleep until noon can leave you feeling groggy, wired and totally out of sync with the world. And do you know why? Because you are, and it's your own fault. So let's talk about consistency over quantity. What really matters.

Speaker 1: 4:20

What really matters, especially for shift workers, is consistency. Now, I know that this is difficult with a lot of rosters that people work these days, and this is why, if I had my way, I'd be rewriting rosters with a forward rotation. It'd be a week of afternoons, a week of days, a week of nights, whatever, but it would be consistent. And if you can wake up around the same time each day, your body starts to learn that pattern. It builds a rhythm. Even when your shifts don't, you can still build a rhythm. And if you want bonus points, if you can go to bed around the same time as well, even better.

Speaker 1: 4:54

But waking up, waking up. I'll say it again, waking up at a consistent time is the real anchor. This is the game changer. Let's just say you work nights and you finish your shift and you get home around 7am and instead of trying to sleep for eight straight hours and waking up groggy at 3pm, what if you aim for 5 hours and then you wake up at 1pm, 5-6 hours, and you gave yourself some sunlight, some movement, got some food before your next shift? It sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it? But for a lot of shift workers, this actually feels better. You're not chasing a number. You're building a routine. Think about it.

Speaker 1: 5:43

A lot of people, because they believe they need to get eight hours sleep, get home from night shift and take medications to try and sleep that eight hours, to try and sleep that eight hours. But here's a tip for you and here's the news Medicated sleep is actually not sleep and this is why you feel so off. And this is why, if you have a look at the people at work, at your work, who get medicated sleep and go I slept for eight hours on my rest of it last night you will notice that they are actually the ones that are so tired on night shift and they say, oh, I need to take medication because I'm so tired. Sweetheart, the medication is what's making you tired, because you're not actually getting any sleep. You are unconscious, because medicated sleep is not sleep. You're unconscious. Your body is not going through normal cycles, so it's really, really difficult.

Speaker 1: 6:51

Now, why does this work? Because your body craves rhythm. This doesn't mean it needs eight perfect hours. It just needs to know what's coming next, sleeping at different times every day and your brain never knows. When should I wind down? When do I turn this off? When do I turn that on? What do I do? How come I'm getting light when I should be sleeping? What's going on? I don't know whether to release this hormone or that one. You are actually literally confusing it. But if you wake up at the same time even if you only slept for five or six hours and your body starts to trust this cycle, it gets better at falling asleep, it gets better at waking up and it gets better at functioning with everything in between. It literally makes sense, doesn't it? When you think about it.

Speaker 1: 7:36

We thrive on rhythm, and what I tell people is my new strategy around night shift is just go to bed to sleep. Don't put pressure on yourself as to how long, and when you wake up, just get up, because you've just napped and washed away the sleep pressure. So get up, get out in the light, take yourself for a walk, take the dog for a walk, do whatever you got to do. Just get some exercise, some movement out in the daylight. Have another nap before you go to bed Makes it easy. Get into night shift, get out of night shift. Don't live in night shift. Get into it, get out of it as quickly as you can possibly do.

Speaker 1: 8:11

So right, let's have a talk about how we can make practical tips to build some form of consistency, and let's break it down into a few simple tips. Pick a consistent wake-up time, even if it varies slightly because of the shift type. If you keep it within a one-hour window, your body will love you and it will thrive, trust me. The second tip is the most important of them. All you ready? Let go of the eight-hour pressure to sleep. Just let it go. Just sleep until the sleep pressure's gone.

Speaker 1: 8:44

You are a shift worker. It's different for you. Instead, just start tracking or feeling how well rested you feel over time. Is your energy steady? Are you waking up before your alarm? Because that's your body telling you this works. The next tip, number three don't lie in bed too long. If you wake up, naturally after five to six hours, don't try and go back to sleep. You've already woken up. You're only going to get frustrated trying to go back to sleep. Get up, open the blinds, get moving and just enjoy those extra hours of your day, because you will then come out of your night shift better and you will survive so much better on those days off. You will recover really well.

Speaker 1: 9:29

Number four tip, number four napping is your superpower as a shift worker and I don't want to hear oh no, I can't nap, because if I nap I actually wake up worse. Well, the reason why you can't nap because you wake up worse is because you're not actually napping, you're sleeping. What's the difference? Rog massage, short naps of between 15 and 25 minutes or a full cycle nap of 90 minutes before or after a shift can actually help to top you up. So what about if we came out of our night shift, got home, had a slight carbohydrate and protein meal and then we said I'm just going to nap, get into bed, do two cycles of 90 minutes, sleep for three hours, get up, go for a walk and then later in the afternoon before you go back to work, put your head down again for another 90 minutes, or even 25, release that sleep pressure and then go to work, because a lot of people are only doing a few nights. I used to do seven, but a lot of people are only doing a few nights a night. So don't try and shift into and sleep right through between two nights. Get up, get that daylight, keep your body in sync with the normal daylight and you will get into and come out of that night shift so much better, and I mean so much better. Napping is your superpower. 15 to 25 minutes is all you need. If you are so tired you feel like you need to sleep or nap, set an alarm clock for 25 minutes, release that pressure and get going again, and it will make such a huge difference to you. Become the master napper.

Speaker 1: 11:07

Number five is you've got to watch your caffeine and your light exposure. You've got to keep caffeine users smart. Caffeine is a great tool for a shift worker to use to get them going and get up and about, but it's also incredibly detrimental when you already have disrupted circadian rhythms and you're putting caffeine into your system to stay awake because you're blocking those adenosine receptors and you're not going to sleep. Now you might think, no, I go to sleep, no problems. You've slammed two monsters overnight. But the problem is you're not getting that deep, restorative sleep and if you do happen to wake up because you've got to go and pee or do something like that, you won't go back to sleep because there's no sleep pressure for you to go back to sleep. And that's the problem.

Speaker 1: 11:54

Wear sunglasses, blue light blocking glasses on the way home after night shift to help you to start to wind down. Try and start to wind down. Go through that karma music. Get in the car, drive sedately home. Just take it easy and wind down to get home so that you do sleep and sleep properly. Don't even put an expectation on you as to how long you sleep. And then, when you do wake up, don't get angry.

Speaker 1: 12:15

Oh, I didn't get eight hours. Who said you got to Think about it? Who said you've got to? I know all the research says so, but that's not for shift workers, and this is the difference, and here's what I want you to remember. I really, really want to drill this in Stop chasing the number, start chasing a rhythm, some sort of rhythm. With the time that you get up, you can look at your roster and you can start chasing that rhythm, because eight hours of broken, inconsistent sleep won't serve you better than five or six hours done consistently, with intention. Trust me on that. It's not about perfection. It's about what works for you and your roster, your body and your life. Let go of the eight hours and start focusing on the consistency.

Speaker 1: 13:02

So if you're listening to this and you're thinking, you know what that actually makes sense, but I'm still struggling to figure this out. Do you think you're alone? You are not, and that's exactly why I created the Shift Workers Collective. Yep, it's a supportive community of people just like you navigating this ridiculously unique lifestyle and learning real strategies that absolutely work. In the Shift Workers Collective, I talk about sleep, nutrition, recovery and everything else that matters when your world runs on a 24-7 clock. You don't have to figure this out alone anymore. I'm here. We're here to help you to go from just surviving shift work to actually thriving in it.

Speaker 1: 13:51

Thanks again for tuning into a Healthy Shift podcast. It's really important that you keep this in mind, and if you would like to learn more about the Shift Workers Collective, there's a link to it in the show notes. No obligation, just go and have a look, see what it's about and feel free to reach out and message me and ask me about it. It's really important. Thanks again for tuning in. I'll catch you next time. 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.