When Night Shift Feels Normal

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I'm gonna be open and honest. I'm gonna be right up front here. I stalk a Facebook group called Night Shift. And I also stalk the sub Night Shift on Reddit. And the things that I see in there terrify me. But I will tell you this: the one thing that I see over and over and over again are the people saying, I'm used to Night Shift, I've been doing it for years. Or you are better to stay on night shift than rotations. I hear this all the time. I see it all the time. And I want to be clear, you absolutely can get better at working nights. You do, you develop routines, you learn when to sleep, when to eat, when caffeine works for you. And eventually walking into work at 10 p.m. can actually feel normal. I used to love the nights. But here's the interesting question: just because night shift feels normal, has your biology actually adapted to it? Because those are two very different things. 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 Plus, 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 organisations. And it all starts by understanding how to work with your biology and not against it. Let's

Your Body Clock Ignores The Roster

SPEAKER_00 2:15

get into today's episode. My name is Roger Sutherland. I'm the founder of a Healthy Shift. I'm a night shift and sleep specialist, and I'm also the creator of the new Shift Work Champions framework. Today, I want to tackle something I hear regularly from experienced shift workers. I see it. I see you writing it. I see people writing this everywhere. Night shift doesn't bother me anymore. My body's used to it. And after more than 40 years of working shifts myself, I understand exactly why it is that people say that. I do. You absolutely do become more experienced at managing nights. No doubt about it. But as you get older, they can get more taxing. There's no doubt about that. But behavioral adaptation and circadian adaption are not the same thing. And understanding that difference is actually really important. So let's address that today. Your body has a clock. The clock on the wall is irrelevant. We have an internal circadian timing system that helps organize an enormous number of biological processes across roughly 24 hours. And sleep and wakefulness are all part of that. But we're talking about so much more than sleep. Body temperature, alertness, hormone secretion, digestion, and metabolism all show daily rhythms. And one of the strongest signals keeping that system aligned with the outside world is light. Daylight. Because for most of us, daylight tells the brain, you wouldn't believe it, but it tells the brain it's daytime. Darkness is part of the biological environment associated with night. Then along comes night shift. We're effectively saying, I know it's 2 a.m., but I need you awake, alert, and performing. And then at 8 a.m., okay, now I need you to sleep. The problem is that changing your work schedule doesn't instantly change your internal biological timing. So the question is, can you adapt? And this is where the answer becomes it depends on what you mean by adapt. Can you become accustomed to working nights? Absolutely. Can you develop better strategies and routines? Oh, definitely. Can the circan system shift in response to a change

Why Full Adaptation Is Rare

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like dark schedule? Yes, it can. But complete circadian adjustment to night work? No. Less than 3% of people in society can do that. It's difficult. Particularly when people are exposed to any normal daytime light and switch backwards towards daytime living on their days off. And that's exactly what a lot of shift workers do. You work nights, then you finish your block, and you want to live during the day again. You want breakfast with your partner, you want to see your kids, you want to play sport, go shopping, meet friends, or simply enjoy daylight. So your biology is continually receiving competing signals. And if you're rotating between day and night shifts, that challenge becomes even more obvious. I'll give you another scenario to those permanent night shifters. And I'm not being discrediting, I can totally understand why you would try and stay on a permanent night. But one of the biggest problems that you've got is there are days and times when you have to get daylight. And that daylight, it's a natural trigger for your daytime diurnal signal system. It triggers the clock, it tells it daytime. That's not that's what I was expecting. There it is. And when it's not expecting it, and it doesn't get it, it confuses it. Now But I feel fine. And this is where things start to get really interesting. That feeling that you've adapted doesn't necessarily tell us that your circadian system has completely adapted. You just have got used to functioning with that situation, and experienced shift workers often are. You know what 3 a.m. feels like. You've learned how to push through the tiredness. You know which part of the shift is the hardest. You've developed habits around caffeine, food, sleep, movement. That's experience. But I think we need to be very careful about interpreting I can do this as this no longer affects me biologically, because they are not the same statement. And this isn't about frightening people away from night shift. It's about understanding what it is that we're actually asking our body to do. Now, permanent nights aren't automatically full adaptation. People, and there's a lot of you out there working permanent nights, they often ask me whether staying on a night-oriented schedule all the time would solve the problem. And in theory, maintaining consistent timing and controlling light exposure can support a greater shift in that circadian timing. It's like traveling, jetly. But in the real world, that is incredibly difficult, as I highlighted before, because very few people want to live permanently as though they're in a different time zone from society around them. Most permanent night workers still interact with daylight, the family responsibilities, appointments, and daytime social life. So even permanent night work doesn't automatically mean complete circadian adaptation. Again, context matters here.

Control The Inputs You Can

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So what do we do with that information? This is where I don't want the message to become night shift is bad, therefore there's nothing you can do. Because that's not helpful in any way whatsoever. But if night shift is part of your career, then let's understand the biology and work with the things that you can influence. Because you can influence your sleep, your light exposure, your movement, your nutrient timing, and particularly the transitions around your roster. The objective isn't to trick your body into believing night is day, because you can't. But it is to reduce unnecessary conflict where we realistically can and give ourselves the best opportunity to sleep, recover, and function well. So the question again, can you adapt to night shift? Well, you can certainly become better adapted to working it. And again, this comes down to what I talk about with what's become your new normal. Because you do, you get used to it. It's like you, as the permanent night shifter, having a conversation with someone who's flying across the globe to Europe from Australia or from the USA to Europe for the first time, and how they feel with uh jet lag. You experience that every single day. So you've become adapted to it and used to it. To them, it is the end of the world. They are struggling forever, but you know that you'll go through cycles and you'll come good. And that is what I liken it to. Two different people, you become very used to it. It doesn't mean that biologically you've adapted to it, you've become used to it. Now, your circadian timing can also shift under the right conditions. And we know this because when we travel across time zones, we adapt eventually to the new time zone. But feeling comfortable working nights doesn't necessarily mean that your biology has completely adapted to being awake at night and asleep during the day. And the biological impacts are enormous. And that is an important distinction. Because once you understand that, you stop expecting yourself to somehow become immune to shift work simply because you've been doing it for years. Instead, you start thinking about how you can work with your biology around the roster that you are actually living. That's what good shift work education should give you. Not fear, not rigid rules, but understanding. Because it doesn't have to be this way. My name, Roger Sutherland, and this

Awareness That Changes Workplaces

SPEAKER_00 11:15

has been a Healthy Shift Podcast. Thank you again so much for joining me, and I'll talk to you in the next episode. 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 and take care of each other.