By By a wide margin the biggest shift work struggle that I get with individuals with regards to working insane and sporadic hours is FATIGUE. Nothing comes even distantly close, and you certainly do not need to be Albert Einstein to understand what causes this weakness. It is simply called – ‘shift work sleep deprivation’.
Just hearing those four words strung together – ‘shift work sleep deprivation’ – is sufficient to cause anyone to feel drained and dormant.
However, in case you’re working in an occupation that includes sporadic start and finish timesand/or you’re needed to work long hours then you’re going to suffer from sleep deprivation at some point as expected – no question. And in case you’re a night shift worker then you’re truly in difficulty because getting some excellent shut-eye during the day can be a monumental task to say the least, especially if your neighbor decides to cut the grass just as you maneuver into your carport after night shift!
Be that as it may, the truth is, and one of the main requirements of our job is to be grinding away when we would typically be asleep. Or then again more simply put – when every other person is sleeping! And the issue with this is that our bodies are customized to work on a 24-hour cycle which means that when the sun goes down, your body reacts by preparing for sleep. After 12 PM, your ‘body clock’ automatically starts to lessen your internal heat level as well as your physical alertness so that you can sleep and read the article here.
Truth is told this is a critical time when your body starts to mend and fix itself, which are the reason working insane and unpredictable hours long term can certainly be damaging to your health. Yet, I do not have any desire to be all pessimism (you’re likely reading this article at the present time and thinking how soul destroying and depressing it is); however that is certainly not my intention.
What I need to do is to help you to figure out how to live with shift work sleep deprivation because when you work these insane hours you need to acknowledge that sleep deprivation is going to be a piece of your life. It is just one of those things. However, when you begin to stop fighting it and instead, figure out how to live with it, you will really start to feel much less fatigued.(Now you’re truly thinking that I’ve lost my marbles, yet just stick with me here).
So as of today, I need you to stop focusing (and talking about) how drained and sleep denied you may be feeling at the present time. Instead expect to get as much sleep as you possibly can, and be thankful for the measure of sleep that you have figured out how to secure. Because in case you’re just saying to yourself again and again how tired you’re feeling, then you’re just going to pull in more of this tiredness – in a real sense!