The Five Words Everyone Hears

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Have you ever noticed that almost every single shift worker gets given exactly the same advice? It's not advice about sleep, and it's not advice about food. It's not even advice about how to look after yourself. It's just five words. You'll get used to it. Now I heard it when I started, and you've probably heard it a hundred times as well. It gets said by experienced nurses, by experienced cops, paramedics, firefighters, factory workers. It's almost like a rite of passage. You struggle through your first few night shifts. You tell someone, oh my God, I can't, I'm just really struggling. And what's the response? Don't worry, mate, you'll get used to it. But what if we've all been repeating something that simply isn't true? And that is what I'm talking about today. It doesn't have to be this way. For far too long, we've accepted fatigue, poor sleep, burnout, and declining health as simply part of working in a 24-7 environment. I don't believe they are. Whether you're a shift worker, trying to feel better, or a leader responsible for the people who keep your organisation running around the clock, you're in the right place. Welcome to a healthy shift. I'm Roger Sutherland, and after more than four decades of working 24-7 shifts with Victoria Please, followed by years of studying nutrition, circadian biology, human performance, and working with literally thousands of shift workers, I've made it my mission to change the conversation around shift work. Because healthier people create stronger teams and stronger teams build better organizations. And it all starts by understanding how to work with your biology and not against it. Let's get into today's episode.

My First Night Shift Reality

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And welcome back to a healthy shift podcast. My name is Roger Sutherland. If you're listening while driving home from night shift, or you're heading into work, or maybe you're just lying in bed trying to get some sleep before tonight's shift, I just want to say thank you for spending some time with me, and you are more than welcome. Now, today isn't really about science at all. We'll get there over the next few episodes, but today is really about this one sentence, five little words. You'll get used to it. I've probably heard that sentence hundreds of times throughout my career. I joined Victoria Police when I was 20 years old. And like everyone else, obviously, I started working night shifts straight away. But I also worked days and afternoons and nights and weekends and Christmas and birthdays and everything in between. I can still remember feeling absolutely smashed after night shift, trying to sleep during the day, walking around like a zombie. Then one of the older members would say, mate, you'll get used to it. And because they've been doing it for years, I just believed them. Now why wouldn't I? They looked like they knew what they were talking about, so I just accepted it. I thought, okay, so this is just what shift work is. Now I think millions of shift workers have done exactly the same thing. We've just accepted feeling ordinary because everyone around us says, that's normal. But here's something that I've thought about a lot. Have you ever noticed? Nobody actually says, Oh, I feel amazing on night shift. Oh, I cannot wait for my next one. They say things like, I've learned to manage, oh, I cope, oh, I just survive, oh, I've adapted to night shift. But those are very different words. They're not describing thriving,

Coping Isn’t The Same As Thriving

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they're actually describing managing it the best way they can. And I think this is where we've all started to lower the bar. Somewhere along the way, we stopped asking, how good could I actually feel? Instead, we've started asking, oh, how do I get through tonight? They're completely different questions. And I know because this is exactly what I did. For years, I thought surviving shift work meant I was succeeding. I'd push through, slam down another monster, grab something quick to eat, promised myself I'd catch up on sleep later on. Repeat? Does this sound familiar?

No One Trains You For Shifts

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Now the interesting thing is, nobody ever teaches us how to work shifts. And I want you to think about that. If you've become a police officer, and I know this for a fact because I did it for 40 years, you're taught how to drive, how to arrest people, how to use the equipment, how to write statements. If you're a nurse, you spend years learning clinical skills. If you're a paramedic, same deal. But I can pretty much guarantee that there was no training on how to look after that body of yours that is expected to work at two o'clock in the morning. Majority. And I challenge anyone, I'm more than happy. Text me through the show notes and tell me if you were trained on how to go about optimizing your life around shift work. Because most of us never got any training at all. I can categorically say I never got any at all in 40 years, never once with Victoria Plus. And I know today they still don't. And yet it's shift work, and we demand so much. We just copy the people around us. And sometimes that's great. But sometimes it's not so great. Because what Karen's doing doesn't necessarily mean you can. And if Jenny's doing it, then that doesn't mean it works for you either. Just because it works for them doesn't mean that's the right thing for you. Just because they stay awake all day and then nap doesn't mean that's what you should do. Everybody is very, very different. And if there's one thing that I've realized since leaving the cops and studying everything that I've studied, and in particular circadian biology, it is this the body isn't stubborn, and the body is not lazy, and it is certainly not trying to

Your Body Responds To Signals

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make life difficult for you. Your body is simply responding to the data that you are putting into it. Your body is simply doing exactly what it evolved to do. It responds to light, to darkness, to food, to movement, to routine. That is what it's designed to respond to. Now the problem is most shift workers never learn that. And what we do is we blame ourselves. We think we're weak. We think, oh, we're just getting older. We think, oh no, I'm not disciplined enough. Maybe. Just maybe. We've been asking the wrong question all along. Not why can't I handle shift work? But what does my body actually need if I'm asking it to work when it naturally wants to sleep? Now that one question completely changed my life. It changed the way I coach people, it changed the way I look after myself, it changed the way I speak to organizations. And over the next few episodes, I'm going to unpack exactly what I mean. We're not going to talk about biology, circadian rhythms, the signals that your body depends on, and why so much of the advice you've probably been given over the years has completely missed the mark. Because here is what I want you to take away from today's episode. So if you've been struggling, if you've been blaming yourself, and if you've been wondering why this all feels harder than everyone told you it would, I want you to know this. You're not failing. Your body is literally just responding exactly as biology

You’re Not Failing

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predicts it will. And once you understand that, everything changes. Now, next episode, I'm going to explore something that completely changed the way that I think about fatigue. Because most people think fatigue is the problem, and I don't. Fatigue is the messenger. That's what I think. And if we only ever focus on the messenger, we're never going to solve the real issue. So if you've enjoyed or are enjoying this series, I would absolutely love for you to hit follow on the podcast and turn on your notifications so you don't miss the next episode. And if you do

Fatigue Is The Messenger

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know another shift worker who's always saying, Oh, I'm exhausted all the time, don't say to them, mate, you'll get used to it, send them this episode. Because it might just be the start of a completely different way of thinking. And I want you to remember this. You weren't designed to work against your biology. You were designed to work with it. It doesn't have to be this way. I'm Roger Sutherland. Thanks for listening. If today's episode resonated with you, don't let the conversation stop here. Share it with a colleague, a manager, a friend, a leader, or someone who has the opportunity to improve the lives of people working in a 24-7 environment. Because real change starts with awareness. And awareness changes conversations, and conversations change organisations. And organizations change lives. So thank you for spending this time with me. And until next time, I want you to remember this. It doesn't have to be this way. Take care of yourself

Share It And Change The Culture

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and take care of each other.