Monday Morning Dread

SPEAKER_04 1:35

Do you dread going to work on a Monday morning? Luckily, I don't. I love getting up. That feeling when that alarm goes off at four o'clock, my feet hit the ground. The shower takes a lot longer than it does on the weekend, mind you. But I don't know. I love it. But there are times I struggle when the alarm goes off. I'm not going to lie about that. Have you ever felt like this?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Because I just feel like I know the weekends are supposed to like kind of like give us a reset for the week, but instead I just like every weekend is kind of like Monday and like Monday is really hard. Oh I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_04 2:20

That's a Gen Z P155 take. It was on social media. Our next guest, though, is probably going to prove to us that Monday itis could actually be a thing. He's he spent 40 years on the frontline in policing. He's seen firsthand the toll that chief work takes on people. Now he's a certified nutritionist who helps the people who keep our world running 24-7 actually survive the job. Roger Sutherland joins me now. Roger, welcome to the program. Is Monday itis a real thing?

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Monday it is absolutely a thing. There is no doubt about it. You've only got to know how people feel, like our regular nine to fivers. How do we feel on Monday morning? And why do you think that is? I'll give you the answer.

How Weekends Shift Your Sleep

SPEAKER_04 3:04

Please, I'm waiting because I I'd see it as I don't know, maybe it's a psychological thing rather than a physical thing. Am I right? No.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

No, it is actually science. It is a physical thing for people. Have a think about what we do. Now you do a morning show, you get up every morning, Monday to Friday, to get into the studio to prepare for the show and do the show. And that's what you do. What do you do on Friday night? And I'm talking to everybody that is out there working at 9 to 5. What do we do Friday night when we get to Friday night? Start later. Do you have to get up on Saturday morning to do a show?

SPEAKER_04 3:45

No. So what do you do? I try to sleep in. I may be able to sleep until 5, 5:30, but my body clock starts to change.

Teens And The Midweek Catch Up

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Well, now, you see, what happens is people sleep in on the Saturday to and I'm doing my quote words catch up on sleep because they feel like they've earned a sleep in. Now what actually happens is because you've had a sleep in, you then go to bed again late on Saturday night, and then what do you do on Sunday morning? You have a sleep in. And then once you've had that sleep in on Sunday morning, what happens when you try to go to bed early on Sunday night because you know you've got to get up early for work on Monday morning? You can't go to sleep. And and that's science because what you've done on Friday night, having that late night, waking up late, going to bed late Saturday night, getting up late on Sunday, what you've done is you've actually phase shifted your biological clock to later. So of course when the alarm goes off at 4 a.m. on a Monday morning for a lot of people, it's an absolute shock because you've woken yourself up in the middle of a cycle of sleep that you've actually phase shifted yourself into. And anyone with teenage children will be nodding in agreement here because if you think about teenage children, they're naturally late chronotype peoples, which means they get up later, they go to bed later. But what they actually do is we allow them to stay up late Friday night on their games, watching their TV, out with their friends. And they don't get out of bed until midday on Saturday, do they? No, they don't. If you're lucky, you yeah, you might see them by midnight. It's a late night Saturday night, isn't it? Yeah. You know?

SPEAKER_04 5:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Late night Saturday night, they're in bed again until Sunday. Good luck to the parents getting them out of bed on Monday morning to go to school. We can't get them out of bed because they've face shifted their circadian rhythm. But then by Wednesday, it starts to get a bit easier to get them up Thursday, Friday, and then we go into this cycle again. And what we're doing here, we are actually playing with our own biological clock. And one of the most important things to do is we don't look at the clock on the wall. It's the internal body clock which is the most important. The reason why you bounce out of bed pretty well on a Monday, I would imagine, is because you tend to stick to the same going to bed and waking up routine even on the weekend.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

So ha hang on. Has someone told you that, mate? I can't stay awake past bloody 7.30 anymore. So I do. Like a Friday night, late night for me is 8.30. I can't make it past halftime in the footy, mate. So you're dead right. I I guess it's me just going, I've got to go to bed.

Circadian Rhythm Made Simple

SPEAKER_01 6:27

I don't use a clock to go to bed when I'm tired. Looking after you since 1952.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

And you know what? What you're doing is you are actually in tune then with your biological clock, which is why you personally think we go, because your body clock.

SPEAKER_04 7:13

It's a temple, my body, yeah. 100%. Yeah. Hey, um, you talk about the circadia rhythm. What is it? Just without being too technical, and how important is it?

SPEAKER_02 7:22

The circadian rhythm, it's your internal body clock that responds to light, meal timing, and it also responds to movement because it can't see and it comes through the light in our eyes. Yeah. So what actually happens is this body clock is literally running 24-7 every single day, and it releases hormones at certain times, it controls our body temperature, it controls our hunger. I'll give you an example. You notice it around lunchtime, you start to feel hungry. That is because your circadian rhythm is starting to release the enzymes to tell you that we need food, we've got to start processing food. Then you get to dinner time, I'm starting to get hungry again. And that's because your body is actually releasing them. Now, you would know when you have that late night and then you wake up in the morning, you feel like you're craving a lot of foods where, you know, highly palatable foods, energy type foods, carbohydrates, things like that. Um, and the reason being is because it's your body searching for energy because your hormones are out of balance, because your circadian rhythm is out of sync.

SPEAKER_04 8:25

That is mate, that is unbelievable. That is unbelievable. One more quick one for you. The older you become, I think the earlier you tend to wake up. Is that is it because we go to bed? I mean, I eat dinner at five o'clock. I can't eat dinner after 5, 5.30 anymore. Is it just because that is just pure body clock? Go to bed earlier, wake up earlier. But I know a lot of my friends are starting to do the same as well. I mean, we used to come home at five in the morning. Now we're getting up at five in the morning.

Ageing Chronotypes And Jet Lag

SPEAKER_02 8:53

100%. When we are young, like when we are babies through to about eight years of age, we are what is known as an early chronotype, early to bed, early to rise. Then once we turn eight and we start going through our teens and later years until we hit about 40s and around 50, we are known as a late chronotype. Our body clock is switched to a later time, which is why we don't go to bed earlier. But I'm over the hill now myself. I'm over sixty and I'm ready for bed like you, eight thirty at night, I'm up and about at five, five thirty in the morning, ready to go. And that's what happens with a lot of people. It is literally our body clock switching. And if you think of when you travel with jet lag, what's the three things that you expose yourself to when you go away? Light, movement, and meal timing in the new time zone. So you cue your body clock into that new time zone. What do we do when we come home? We lounge around, we stay inside, we try and catch up on sleep, we're exhausted. Of course, our body clock doesn't know where we're at, hence we get jet lag and we feel so awful when we come home.

SPEAKER_04 9:59

Wow, incredible. Hey, listen, before I let you go, I I love chatting to you, mate. Fantastic stuff. I know you've got an online seminar. Is it this Thursday? And you're going to talk about shift workers, and there's about, I think, five of you speaking uh at this online seminar. Can you tell me a little bit more about it? Thank you.

Night Shift Summit Details

Key Takeaway And Farewell

SPEAKER_02 10:16

I I'm absolutely thrilled to announce that um I'm part of an inaugural night shift summit, which is being run in conjunction with National Third Shift Day in the USA. Now, it'll be at 10 a.m. this Thursday. It is a free event. We have five expert speakers. One's talking on sleep and circadian rhythms. I'm going to be talking about the optimal way to go into, to execute, and to exit night shift like you haven't even done night shift to enjoy your days off. We've got a researcher talking about nutrition, what to eat and when. We've got another doctor who works night shift in the USA that is going to be talking about the impact that shift work has on our mental health. And then we've got Sean talking about employer infrastructure and societal change. So we need to look at not only helping the shift worker, but we need complete system changes in in organizations. All right, Roger, where do we where do we go for this seminar? If people go to the website Night Shift Summit, all one word, nightshiftsummit.com, you can register for this free event. I promise you we're not selling anything other than we're just giving away our education for people. If you can't make it at 10 a.m., there will be a replay for registered users of it. So if you put your name and your email address, you'll be put into the loop. You will get the replay and you can just watch whatever section is relevant to you. You can ask us questions as well, and we're there for it. 10 a.m. Thursday morning, Eastern time.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

Roger, brilliant, mate. Thanks for uh filling us in on Monday itis. It is a thing because you change your habits on the weekend. Thanks for your time, mate. Appreciate it. Thank you, Jason. I appreciate it.