The Holiday Jet Lag Mystery

How Travel Resets Your Clock

Why Jet Lag Hits At Home

Social Jet Lag For Shift Workers

The Three Anchors That Work

Free Roster Assessment And Wrap Up

Subscribe Review And Where To Find Me

SPEAKER_00 1:41

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 rigors of shift work, but thrive. My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and well-being so they have more energy to do the things they love. Enjoy today's show. And welcome to another episode of a Healthy Shift Podcast. You are more than welcome, and I want to say thank you so much for joining me. Today, I want to apologize. So let's talk about holidays. We love holidays. We all work, we get tired, and we just can't wait to get to our holidays. And we've got our overseas trip book, and we jump on the plane, and what do we do? We flight and we get exhausted and we land in our new place and we can't wait to look at what we're doing, and we get out and we see and we eat all the food and we're out in the sunlight and everything's wonderful and we feel fantastic. True? You ever worked out why that is? It's not because you're on holidays, or it's not just because you're on holidays, it certainly helps. But have you ever noticed something really strange about holidays? That you can fly across multiple time zones and you can land somewhere completely different. And within about 24 hours or 48 hours, you are just fine. You're out exploring, you're up early, you're reading at all the local times, and somehow have you ever noticed that you're not sitting there complaining about jet lag all day? Have you ever realized that? Now you might feel a bit tired, sure, but you just keep on pushing on. And then you sleep really hard that night. So what is going on here? Why do we seem to adjust so quickly when we are traveling away on holiday? Is it because we're more relaxed and we're on holiday? I'm about to tell you exactly what is going on here, and this is going to help you more than you realize. So buckle up. What it is, is it's coming down to how you're treating your actual internal body clock. When you land in your new place, you don't think about your circadian rhythm. But what actually happens is, is your behavior lines it up perfectly with the new time zone. You get up, even though you're tired, you're in a new location, you don't want to miss anything. So what you do is you get up and you open the blinds and you look outside and you go, Oh my God, look how good the day is. Daylight. And then what you do is you get up and you go downstairs or you go out to the to the buffet and you're having breakfast, eating at a regular time. And then what you do is you get out to have a look around. And you can't, you just love everything because you're on holiday and you just gotta you've landed in a place and you've got to go and have a look and whatever movement. Because what you're doing is you're out there walking, exploring, doing things, you're eating at local times, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And what is that doing? It's lining up your body clock with the new time zone. And then at night, as it starts to get dark, you aren't sitting on the couch scrolling Netflix, are you? What you're actually doing is you're outside and you're out and about, and your eyes start to register that it's starting to get dark. Or you might be on a beach somewhere and you're sitting watching a sunset. And what this does is it triggers your body to start winding down, and then you feel sleepy and you think, you know what, it's been a big day, might have an early night, and off you go to sleep, and straight away, bang, you're out like a light, and you're off to sleep. Happy days. So, what you've done is in a very short period of time, in the very first day, in the very first 24-48 hours, you have given your body very clear signals. This is the morning, this is daytime, uh, and now this is night. Light, movement, and food timing. And these are the three big drivers. And when they are aligned, your body adapts super fast. Now, we've had to finish up our holiday, and what are we doing? We're heading home. And what do we do when we get home? Oh, we're back home. Flop on the couch, artificial light, eating at all different times. The signals are inconsistent, they're weak, and they become very, very confusing for your body. Your body does exactly what it is being told to do. At the moment, you've come home from holidays, you're sleeping in, so you've thrown your circadian clock out even further. You're eating at ridiculous times, you're sitting on the couch watching TV or scrolling your Netflix because you just feel tired and I've got jet lag and I've got to get over it. So your body's literally just doing exactly what you've told it to do. Nothing, clearly. You've given it no signal. And this is why when you get home, your jet lag lasts a week. Now, here is where this really matters. Because hello, shift workers, this is exactly what you are dealing with. Now you're not flying across time zones, but your schedule is early starts, night shift, days off where things change again, and that feeling that you get flat, tired, completely out of sync. This is what we call social jet lag. And we all as shift workers get it. And this is why when we get jet lag, we deal with it a lot better than a lot of people do because we're conditioned to it, we're used to it. But the biggest mistake that most of you are making as a shift worker is thinking that this is unavoidable, and it's not. And this is how I help clients because the same thing that helps you to adjust when you go away on holidays is the very thing that helps to stabilize you during your working time as well. Your body needs anchors, it needs a consistent wake-up time where possible. I know you're a shift worker, but stop making excuses and start getting yourself up at a regular time. You need early light exposure, daylight exposure. It doesn't matter whether it's an overcast day. We're learning so much more about light and the impact that light has on us, even on an overcast day. The blue light in that overcast day is still 10,000 times stronger than any blue light inside your house. And not only that, but there's infrared light around as well. That just from an overcast day, and as it's hitting your body and skin, it's actually stimulating that mitochondria. It's charging you up like it's charging a solar panel. Now the sun doesn't have to be present for this. And then what you do is you're getting some form of movement or you need to get some form of movement early in your day outside and start eating at a regular time. Be disciplined. Only eat at breakfast, lunch, and dinner time. And if you're asleep during one of those times, you miss it. Just like you do as a nine to five when you go to bed at night and you sleep overnight. You're not waking yourself up to eat in the middle of the night. Now you don't need perfection with this, but what you do need is consistency because your body is not guessing, it's actually just responding to the signals that you're giving it. So give it clear signals and your body will adjust, ignore them, and your body will just drift. And this is where we get jet lag or social jet lag. So next time you're thinking about how good you feel on holiday, don't just put it down to being away and being away from work. Look at what you're actually doing differently, because that's the blueprint, and you can bring that back into your normal life, and you've got to be disciplined to do it. Even in a shift working life, you can do this. Now, if you would like help to build this around your roster, if you go down to a link in the show notes, I will meet up with you for a free 15-minute assessment call where you and I will look at your roster, your lifestyle, and work out a schedule that will optimize this for you. Because this is literally what I specialize in. I've learned a lot around this. And I can help you, regardless of what your roster is, I can help you with this to anchor it and to get you feeling so much better. And I mean so much better. Because what you're doing at the moment is your body is literally just responding to the signals that you are putting into it. Change that and it changes your life. So let's build something that actually fits your life. Not a generic plan. Don't go off searching social media and trying to work out what to do. Let me be the bridge between lived experience and research. Let me help you from that perspective. All right? That's it for today. It's a really short one. I want it to be really impactful. Have a think about that. Because if that didn't land with you, then you literally haven't traveled across a time zone. Because you know as well as I do that what I'm saying here is a hundred percent right. When you go away on holiday, you never suffer with jet lag or rarely. And if you are, it's because you haven't got up and got going. But most people do because they maximize their time. But when you come home and you're suffering, I'm gonna call you out because your body is literally only responding to the signals that you are putting into it. And that is the same in your shift working life as well. Every day your body is responding to the signals that you're putting in. Because once your body clock is stable, everything gets easier. Sleep, energy, and focus, and it all starts there. 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 ahealthyshift.com. I'll catch you on the next one.