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.

Speaker 1: 2:14

Enjoy today's show and g'day, and welcome to A Healthy Shift Podcast. I'm your host, roger Sutherland, and for more than 40 years I've lived the shift work life. I've worked my way through countless rotations and, believe me, I have seen it all, from the midnight caffeine runs to the blurry-eyed mornings, the golden arches trip. I know what it's like. I also know that for a long time, I was doing it all very, very wrong. Now, today's episode is to answer a question that I get asked quite often, and in fact, in our private group, the Shift Workers Collective, I was asked this question by one of our users what do I tell a group of new paramedics that are starting shift work? And I thought I'm going to do a podcast on this, because I want to talk to you about what I wish someone had told me when I was just starting out. And the honest truth is that shift work can slowly eat away at you if you are not careful. Is that? Shift work can slowly eat away at you if you are not careful? It's like a quiet storm brewing and one day you wake up and you think how did I get here? Now, it does not have to be that way. The key is to get the fundamentals right from the very, very start, and what we do is we build habits and routines early on so that they become as natural to us as breathing.

Speaker 1: 3:46

So let's get a start. Let's understand your body clock. So let's start with your body's internal clock, which is known as your circadian rhythm. Circa Diaz is where it comes from, about a day. Think of it as your personal 24-hour master timer. It's what tells you when to sleep, when to wake up and when to be alert. The most important thing that you know is that your body has a biological day and a biological night, and your health night and your health, your mental health, physical health, all health depends on staying as close to that biological diurnal clock as possible, even when your work schedule appears to be pulling you in the opposite direction. Now, ignoring this is what causes so many of the health issues that we see in our shift working community, and this is where research is so detrimental towards the shift workers of today, because there has been no education. So let's get the education out there, and that's what I'm trying to do through this podcast, through the website, through social media. I'm trying to educate our shift working community so that we can turn all of this around.

Speaker 1: 5:03

And one of the most important things to do is to get in line as much as possible with your biological clock, your circadian rhythm. Don't let the roster dictate how you live. You let your biological clock dictate how you live and then you really start to thrive. And how can we get the circadian rhythm right? Well, we've got to get our light diet right Now. I talk about the light diet a lot, and light is a massive contributing thing in everything that I do, because it is just so important. It's the single biggest factor in regulating your circadian rhythm and that is light, and it's not just about turning the lights on and off. You need to be very deliberate with your light diet. First, you've got to get that daylight, that sunlight as early in your day as you can. The lighting outside, even on a bleak and overcast day, is still significantly better than the couch watching Netflix, I can assure you. So when you wake up, grab that coffee and get outside, even if it's just for 15 to 20 minutes, that's all it needs. But what this does is it signals to your brain that the day has started, and what this does is it suppresses all of your sleep hormones. It sets all of those day hormones to get you going and it gets you up and about resetting that internal clock Now. Secondly and this is the crucial thing as well, and that is at the other end of the day, when the sun has gone down, we must block out blue light after dark.

Speaker 1: 6:50

Now, blue light is not the color blue. Well, it is, but not the way our eye sees it. The way our eye sees it is with these low voltage LED lights that we have in our houses these days, being white, a lace with blue. Your phone, that tablet, the tv that you're looking at they all are emitting a lot of blue light and a lot of the time you're holding them close to your face and you're looking straight at them. What does? Does this do? This tells your brain that it's daytime. Don't look at the clock and go. Oh, it's bedtime. Your body already knows that it's light time, and this is one of the main reasons why people can't sleep at night, or because they wake up through circadian disruption. You have been telling your brain that it is.

Speaker 1: 7:45

Now what this does is it crushes your body's ability to produce melatonin, and melatonin is the darkness signaler in our body. So think about that Blue light, which is the only spectrum of light that our brain sees, is the blue. If there's blue present, it suppresses melatonin, the very reason why we need to get outside in the morning to suppress that melatonin and get us up and about, but at night we need to get rid of that blue light to bring that melatonin on, and then it signals darkness. I know what you're going to say. You're going to say, oh, yeah, but, rog, I can look at my phone and then roll over and go straight to sleep. I don't have any problems and that's great. Kudos to you. But let me just explain this to you as well Melatonin is a very, very powerful hormone in our body. It is our free radical eradicator. What is a free radical Cancer cells. That's what it is, and what we need to do is we need to be getting rid of all of this. We need melatonin in our system overnight to help to eradicate those free radicals, and this is one of the main reasons why shift workers have such a high rate of cancer, and the reason being is because of the blue light that they're exposed to overnight. Keep that in mind. It's not about sleep. You might think you can look at your phone and roll over and go to sleep, but what you are doing is phase shifting your circadian rhythm by over 90 minutes or so, and that means that you are left unprotected from that free radical enhancer, and this is what causes us all sorts of problems. So what we need to do is we need to use blue light blocking glasses or a filter app if you absolutely must look at your phone or the TV.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Now, the next step that we move on to is fueling your body for health. So let's talk about food, because it's important. Your digestive system is also on a circadian schedule. Keep that in mind. This is why you need to get your meals in during normal day walker times. Now. This is called time-restricted eating, or TRE. Now I've done a podcast on this in the last few weeks. Eating meals during your body's biological night can actually mess with your digestion, your metabolism, and it severely impacts how your body stores that energy Hello, body fat. Now what we need to do is to try and have your last meal before the sun goes down, if you can, even on a night shift.

Speaker 1: 10:23

When you're on night shift, the goal is to eat as little as possible overnight, because your body is biologically programmed to rest and repair at night, not to break down food. We are insulin resistant. Our pancreas secretes less insulin. Our body is shut down and not ready to digest food. Just because we're awake does not mean our digestive tract is. Fasting during your biological night is one of the absolute best things that you can do for your health, and when I educate my clients on how to go about doing this this fast, overnight optimally, they cannot believe how well they go into and come out of night shift and how much better their digestive tract, gut bloating, gas, ibs all of that disappears because of the overnight fast. If you want to learn how to go about doing this, all you got to do is go to my website and as you scroll down, there's a block there to download my circadian fast book, or even in the bottom menu there is a link to the circadian fast ebook, and in that book it will tell you all about how to structure the overnight fast and why we actually should. And if you don't think you can, I'll put you to the sword and tell you that you absolutely can. Once you start doing it, you'll never go back, because it makes such a difference to how you feel on night shift.

Speaker 1: 11:53

Now, another thing that often gets overlooked is hydration, and this is especially for our female shift workers, because the shift work lifestyle can really compromise your digestive tract. You already have a compromised digestive tract, ladies, so let's not compromise it anymore by putting food in it, but let's give it a chance to really get things moving and put water through it so that it's actually keeping everything going for you. So you need to be drinking more water than you think, and one of the best methods of being able to do this is to keep a water bottle with you at all times and just keep sipping at it through your shift. It's not about chugging it, just getting a bottle and chugging it down. Just keep sipping it, and that's one of the best things Now. Lastly, let's talk about two more of my foundational pillars, which are movement and boundaries.

Speaker 1: 12:45

Now, movement Movement does not have to be a full-blown workout. A lot of us don't have time for a full-blown workout or we don't feel like it. It can literally just be a brisk walk, a few stretches or just do some bodyweight exercises. I highly recommend that shift workers get out and walk for at least 30 minutes every single day. All you got to do is get some form of movement in in the early part of your day every day. Why? Because this improves insulin sensitivity and it is a non-negotiable for both your physical and your mental health. You will feel better. You get to make a choice. If you've got two good legs and you will have because you're working get out and use them and walk and be grateful that you can actually do it. And you get to actually do it and reframe your thinking that I get to walk, I'm able to walk and this is benefiting me in every way. Movement, some form of movement every single day, preferably early in the day and not late, because it will impact on your sleep.

Speaker 1: 13:52

And finally, last but not least and this is just touching on a few of my main ones is boundaries, but this is a huge one. You must put a clear line between work and home. When you are off the clock, you are off. You can't let the job bleed into your personal life, just like you can't let your personal life bleed into your job. So turn off your work phone notifications. We don't answer calls or texts from work, and your mental health and your relationships with your family and friends will depend on you being fully present when you are at home. This is important. It is super important that you are focusing on the people outside of work when you are not there. Either that or you might as well just stay at work and stay with the people that are there.

Speaker 1: 14:41

Now, these are just the absolute basics that I've spoken about today, and they really are just basics, but let me be the one to inform you. These are vital, they are super important and they will, in fact, set you up. This is where I start, clients. They will set you up Understanding the difference between the biological day and the biological night. Utilizing light, the best possible way to actually cash in on that eating at normal day, walker times and, if you can, front-loading your calories into the earlier part of the day will make a difference to you as well Getting some sort of movement in every single day, early in the day, and putting a boundary in place between your home and your work life for the benefit of the mental health of everyone that's involved. That's it today.

Speaker 1: 15:34

Now, these are just the basics, but they are the most important. But if you need help around this or help in how to navigate this, then this is what I do I teach shift workers to thrive and not just survive in their shift working lives. This is not about taking photos, weighing yourself, macro meals, weighing food, cooking, meal preps, kitchen benches loaded. This is simply about putting simple habits in place to help you to gain momentum so that you start feeling better. Think about the times when you used to, before shift work, absolutely thrive, and then now all you're doing is blaming shift work. But I want you to have a look at it, armed with what I just told you about. Then have a look at all of the sacrifices and the self-sabotaging that you are actually making yourself purely because you don't know how to go about it and I do, and I can help you with it.

Speaker 1: 16:29

And in the show notes, right down the bottom, there is a link to one-to-one coaching, and I will give you a free 15-minute coaching assessment call where you and I will have a conversation and I will help you to navigate your biggest hurdles in shift work over a period of 12 weeks. You will never look back. I can promise you that you will never look back. It's one of the best investments that you can make into your health as a starting out shift worker that you will ever make. It doesn't matter where you are in the world. I will still be able to consult with you, help you to navigate shift work in the optimal way, and I will get you to thrive and not just survive.

Speaker 1: 17:11

And who doesn't want more energy to do the things that you love outside of your shift working life? All right, so that's it for today. What a podcast. It's very simple. So that's it for today. What a podcast. It's very simple, it's very effective and you just have to do it. And if you don't, how's it going for you? Right now it's not going well, so therefore, try something new and basic is absolute best. I'll catch 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 a healthy shift. I'll catch you on the next one.