Speaker 1: 1:42

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 and welcome back to another episode of A Healthy Shift.

Speaker 1: 2:23

This is the podcast that is dedicated to helping you, the shift worker, to thrive, no matter when you work. Now I'm your host, roger Sutherland, and today I want to tackle a topic that hits pretty close to home, for well, I'm not even going to say almost every shift worker, I'm going to say every single shift worker, and that is the issue of fatigue. We've all said it, We've all felt it I'm so tired. But what if I told you that, while feeling tired is absolutely valid, there might be more to it than just the hours that you keep. So today, what I want to do is shine the spotlight on some of the more common reasons why you might be feeling perpetually drained and, more importantly, what there is that you can do about it. So let's call this episode Sure, you're Tired, but there you go. So that's it now.

Speaker 1: 3:20

The first one that I want to talk about is I want to underscore this entire episode with some research that's come out that shows that a lot of shift workers may actually be suffering from sleep disorders which are going undiagnosed. Now, this is a real problem, because a lot of shift workers, what they actually do is just put everything down and just put an umbrella over the top of it of. I'm a shift worker and I do want to say this to you If you are chronically fatigued all the time and you are waking tired, when you seem to have been getting seven to eight hours sleep or something like that, it's really good for you to go and have a conversation with your practicing physician and discuss it, because shift workers have and end up with, a number of biological issues that are really important to address, and one of those issues are the sleep disorders that go with it. And you can't. He might say, oh well, you're just a shift worker, so that's it. But we need to look at this a lot deeper, because research is clear and it's showing that a lot of shift workers, as a reflection of society, a lot of shift workers do actually suffer from sleep disorders. Society, a lot of shift workers do actually suffer from sleep disorders. Now, with us gaining additional weight and things like that, sleep apnea is certainly a problem for a shift worker and there's a whole range of issues. So go and have a conversation.

Speaker 1: 4:53

If you're listening to this podcast and you get to the end of it and you think, no, no, I'm really good with all of this, but you are still waking tired, then there could be a legitimate reason. Go and do your research. Don't just write it off to shift work, because that could be highly dangerous just in itself. Now, the first topic I want to cover is your first excuse I didn't sleep well, okay. So let's start with the obvious, which is often overlooked culprit, and that is your sleep quality. Now you might think well, I'm a shift worker, of course my sleep isn't great.

Speaker 1: 5:30

Now, while the challenge of this is actually real, it is actually worth asking yourself why not? Why isn't it good? What specifically is disrupting your sleep? And, more important, because your sleep is disrupted? This could generally be traced back to melatonin production, because melatonin is our hormone, which is secreted as a result of darkness, which helps our body to sleep. Now, melatonin, as you know, is our sleep hormone. It is naturally produced in the darkness and it signals to our body that it is dark outside and it is time to actually wind down and shut down all of those organs. But for us shift workers, this natural rhythm is constantly being challenged, isn't it?

Speaker 1: 6:21

So what you're doing is you know you've got to ask yourself the question have you gone from and I'll look at you nurses to start off with have you worked an afternoon shift where you've been exposed to bright artificial light right up until about 10 or 11 o'clock at night in your artificially lit workplace, and then you're just going straight home, jumping into bed. Are you exposing yourself to bright lights, especially that blue light? Now, a lot of us think of blue light as the light that comes from our phone or our device, but blue light is literally in those new LED overhead lights that you're exposing yourself to. Led overhead lights, that you're exposing yourself to fluorescent tubes, lights like that, absolutely laced with blue light, which severely disrupts our melatonin production and our circadian rhythm. So what we should be doing is really trying to block this as much as we can, because these things can significantly suppress the melatonin production, which makes it incredibly difficult for us to not only fall asleep but to stay asleep, more importantly, even when your body so desperately needs it. So the thing is here a lot of us, we get into bed and we are absolutely exhausted and we drop off pretty quickly, and that is sleep pressure.

Speaker 1: 7:41

Now, I've done podcasts on this before and it's very different. Sleep pressure is very, very different from the ability to stay asleep, because sleep pressure builds over the course of the day, right With the buildup of adenosine on the brain, which builds that sleep pressure or that sleep homeostat, so that we end up going to sleep. But then, once that is released from the brain, once we sleep, then we tend to wake up because there's nothing to keep us asleep anymore, and this is because of our disrupted melatonin production. So when you say I didn't sleep great, ask yourself no-transcript, and I've spoken about it over and over again in a number of podcasts, but this one here is really important. The next one I drink too much coffee.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Now, our beloved lifeblood for many shift workers, caffeine. Now, it's easy to fall into the trap of using caffeine as a crutch to get through a shift or to get us to wake up after a poor night's sleep. And while a cup or two of coffee can be fine, relying on excessive amounts of caffeine can really severely backfire on us. Here's the truth, and I want you to remember this. Tattoo this on your brain the less coffee we drink, the less we actually need it, because we actually start getting much better quality sleep. Now I've had clients that voluntarily just stopped drinking coffee, not because I've told them to, but they've just stopped drinking caffeine and they cannot believe the difference that it's actually made to their life.

Speaker 1: 9:43

Yes, I know we all absolutely love the taste of it, but do we, is it a habit? Do we really need it? It's kind of like alcohol, isn't it? We don't really need it, but we just do it. Now we think that we need caffeine because we're so tired. What about if we weren't drinking caffeine and we were sleeping a lot better? Because caffeine has a very, very long half-life up to six hours and research clearly shows that caffeine impacts on subsequent sleep for up to nearly nine hours.

Speaker 1: 10:15

After just 107 milligrams, which is just a little more than one pod of a Nespresso in 250 mil of water. That's not much caffeine. And if you think about the amount of caffeine that you're drinking in those energy drinks, is it any wonder that you're not getting quality sleep when you try and sleep? This is important to understand. So I put a golden rule in place and I know this is one that's really difficult for a lot of shift workers but if you use 12 o'clock and I'm talking midnight and 12 midday if you use 12 o'clock as your cutoff point for caffeine, you will find that your sleep quality will improve out of sight. Now you don't have to drink caffeine or coffee. You don't have to. We do have to be mindful of all the different foods that caffeine comes in as well, like chocolate, and also those energy drinks that we drink. Coca-cola has 40 milligrams of caffeine per can in it as well. Yes, including even the diet drinks. Any cola has caffeine in it.

Speaker 1: 11:19

Be very careful of all of this caffeine that you're putting into your system all the time. Remember, just a little over one Nespresso pod impacts on your sleep for up to nine hours. I think that's really, really important. So having that afternoon coffee to push through your shift could actually be preventing you from getting that restorative sleep that you need when you do get there and get to sleep. I know it's a vicious cycle Tired, drink coffee, sleep poorly, wake up more tired, drink more coffee. And this is the evolving circuit that us shift workers get into. Try and break into that. Try and reverse it. Try and turn it around and watch the difference that it makes. So try to be really mindful of your caffeine intake, especially in the latter half of your waking day. You might be surprised at how much better you feel when you're not constantly chasing that caffeine high. Remember I have the golden rule 12 o'clock, whether it's midnight or midday. Keep that in mind. Cut your caffeine and you will feel so much better. Okay, here's the next one. I just feel so blah. Do you ever just feel flat, like your energy's low, your mood is down and you just can't seem to shake that general feeling of blah?

Speaker 1: 12:40

This often goes beyond just physical tiredness and can actually be very, very deeply connected to your exposure to natural light. Artificial light well, obviously it's very essential for us for working indoors, for safety simply does not compare to natural daylight. Our bodies are designed to respond to the sun's natural spectrum of light. Now this isn't just about vitamin d, I can tell you right now. It's about regulating our circadian rhythm. It boosts our mood and it actually improves our alertness. Ask yourself this question how much daylight exposure did I actually get today? Not from looking out a window, not from sitting in the lounge with the blinds open outside, because even on an overcast or a cloudy day, the light outside is exponentially brighter and much more beneficial than any of those artificial lights that we use indoors.

Speaker 1: 13:44

Now, if you're consistently working indoors under artificial light and then going home without stepping outside, you are missing a very, very crucial element for your actual health and wellbeing. So what I ask you to do is to try and incorporate even short bursts of outdoor light time in your day wherever possible. I would highly recommend that you get up, get your morning caffeine or, when you first wake up, whether it's daytime, afternoon, morning, whatever get outside with your caffeine and get that daylight at the earliest possible opportunity. It will anchor your circadian rhythm, it helps to avoid that social jet lag and you will feel so much better. Now here's another one. I'm on my phone too much, and let's just talk about our constant companion these days our mobile phones. Now here's another one. I'm on my phone too much. And let's just talk about our constant companion these days our mobile phones.

Speaker 1: 14:37

Now we all know that screen time can eat into our sleep. How many times? How many times do you get into bed and start scrolling and, all of a sudden, an hour's gone? But it's not just about the hours that you spend scrolling. It's about that blue light that's emitted from your screen, which can actually drain your dopamine. We are chasing dopamine by what we're looking at on our device, but the device is actually draining us of it. Keep that in mind. Dopamine is our feel-good neurotransmitter and it's associated with pleasure and reward in our system. While a quick hit from our social media notification might be good in the moment, getting those hits and that notification all the time and that constant exposure to that artificial blue light, especially close to bedtime, will actually disrupt our natural dopamine regulation, which leaves us feeling more depleted and even more less motivated. Now it's a subtle but significant drain on your mental and your emotional energy, contributing to that overall feeling of being tired.

Speaker 1: 15:45

Consider implementing a digital sunset. This is a good idea. Putting your phone away at least two hours before you plan to sleep is life-changing. It slows your brain down, it stops you from thinking. It stops you from chasing that dopamine hit, and you can actually set your phone to automatically go on to Do Not Disturb or lock these apps as well. There's so much that you can do now, really important. Give it a go. You might find it'll make a massive difference to how much better you feel during the day.

Speaker 1: 16:18

Another one that I want to talk about is stress. Now, this one is almost an absolute given for all of us. Yep, you are stressed. The irregular hours alone, the disruption to your social life, the constant push against your natural biological clock this all impacts on you and it all adds up. But let's dig a little bit deeper into how this stress actually manifests physically and how light plays a role in this as well. Again, I want to talk about artificial light, both during the day and after sunset, causes chaos to us biologically.

Speaker 1: 16:59

Now, our body is actually hardwired in a normal diurnal cycle to respond to the natural light and dark cycle. We are humans. We are supposed to be awake during the day and asleep at night. But when we constantly expose ourselves to artificial light, especially this blue, rich light that our body gets from these artificial lights and screens that we're looking to all the time when our body is expecting darkness signals a massive stress to our system. Now, this can lead to elevated cortisol levels. It'll disrupt your hormone balance and will generally keep your body in a state of hyper arousal, making it incredibly difficult to truly rest and recover, even when you are actually actively working.

Speaker 1: 17:50

Now, managing stress isn't just about mindfulness, please. It's about creating that environment that supports your body's natural rhythms. Now, I totally understand that while we do night shift, we can't be in this cycle. It's really important, I get that. But what we do do is we actually cause ourselves a lot more drama with our self-sabotaging when we get to days off or when we have got the opportunity to get to bed earlier and get good dark sleep and be up and around in the light during the day, and the impact on your mental health is actually enormous.

Speaker 1: 18:30

On this, okay, let's move on the next one. I just feel so tired. And finally, let's address that pervasive feeling of just being utterly exhausted. Now, while poor sleep, caffeine and light exposure are huge factors, there's also one other that is often overlooked, often overlooked, and fatigue is a symptom of dehydration. So how hydrated are you Truly? I want you to think about it Now this one might seem just far too simple, but poor hydration often presents as fatigue.

Speaker 1: 19:07

Even mild dehydration can lead to reduced energy levels. It will lead to difficulty in you concentrating and just a general feeling of sluggishness. It'll also severely impact on your immune system, because our immune system is working hard and that water is what flushes the toxins out of our body as soon as possible. Really important hydration, totally underestimated. Your body needs water for every single metabolic process and if you're not adequately hydrated, things just don't run as efficiently as they should be. So before you reach for another cup of coffee or an energy drink, try reaching for a big glass of water. It is a simple and very, very powerful intervention that will really help a lot and, once again, clients that I've worked with that have increased their hydration have felt so much better in so many ways. And keep in mind Eight cups of water, no. Two litres of water no. Everyone is completely different.

Speaker 1: 20:17

All right, the simple rule and the scientific measure for properly hydrated for you is straw or clear, coloured urine. It is that simple, right. If your urine starts to yellow or become quite coloured, it's time to drink up, and I always find as well. Sipping water throughout the day is a lot better than getting to the stage where you're chugging it to try and catch up. That causes more problems. So sip your water Now.

Speaker 1: 20:46

Two others that I just want to throw in as additional considerations. Which make a massive difference to us as a human and our fatigue levels is nutrition and movement. So let's quickly touch on those other two critical areas that directly impact on us. Ask yourself this question are you properly fueling your body with consistent, nutritious meals or are you relying on highly processed, sugary snacks and quick fixes? And I'll say this what you eat directly impacts your blood sugar, your energy levels and your overall vitality.

Speaker 1: 21:24

Now, what I also want to say is if you are not incorporating any form of movement into your day, even just a short walk on a break or simple stretches can significantly boost your energy and improve your circulation and help you to feel more awake and alive. You don't have to gear up and go to the gym to do a gym session. If you are between nights or you're on a bad run of shifts, just getting out and having a walk in the daylight upon waking will make an enormous difference to your life. It really does. Okay, so, while tired, or I'm tired or I can't do. This is a valid feeling. I hope today I've opened your eyes to just a few layers that may actually be causing that statement of I'm tired. It's not enough for you to say I'm tired. You've got more control over your energy levels than you actually think. It's not about making any radical changes overnight, but it's about making some small and consistent shifts that will help you enormously. So let's just back over a couple of them.

Speaker 1: 22:31

Be mindful of your light exposure, especially around sleep times. Re-evaluate your relationship with caffeine. More you have, more you need. It's that simple. Prioritize natural light whenever you can. Set boundaries with your phone and other screens. Focus on staying well hydrated through your shift and your off time. Sip, don't chug and don't forget there's a massive power in good nutrition and regular movement. Now, these are not quick fixes, but they are actually powerful tools that you can use to reclaim your energy and truly thrive, even as a shift worker.

Speaker 1: 23:10

You can Trust me, I know that shift workers can thrive, and that's it for today's episode of A Healthy Shift. Now I would absolutely love to hear your. You can Trust me, I know that shift workers can thrive, and that's it for today's episode of A Healthy Shift. Now I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts on today's topic. What strategies have you found most effective in combating fatigue? Head over to ahealthyshiftcom or to my social media and share your insights, because until next time, remember to be kind to yourself and make those healthy shifts and keep thriving. I'm Roger Sutherland and I'll talk to you on the next one. 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.