Working Nights

Working Nights President, Betsy Connolly, to Chat with Nurses on NurseTogether.com – Join us Tomorrow at 6 pm est.

Nurses are used to working shifts - nursing was one of the first professions to require that work schedules be matched to the needs of patients.  Medical complexities, expanded services, and consumer demand for all types of health care around the clock has meant that more nurses are working shift work now than ever.

Betsy Connolly, President of Working Nights is going to be chatting on-line with nurse members of NurseTogether.com.  Topics will include a review of circadian rhythms as well as practical tips for managing work/life balance when working shifts, particularly roating ones. 

When:  Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 6 pm est.

Where:  NurseTogether.com – click here for the link and to become a member.

A Great Book to Read over the Holidays – “My Stroke of Insight,” by Jill Bolte Taylor

Book Review – My Stroke of Insight – a Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey, by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.,

Taylor’s book provides a unique education about our brains, in particular, about how the two different hemispheres of our brains work – together and independently.  Taylor provides insight into the impact of impaired brain functioning, something that is critical to the health and safety of shift workers and to the success of shift work operations.  Shift workers are known to exist on less than the optimal amount of sleep ~ typically 5 hours versus 7-8 hours; while obviously not as severe as a stroke, sleep deprivation has been shown to have a significant negative impact on the brain’s ability to perform.

There have been many studies on the impact of sleep deprivation on the brain.  In one study (Dai-Jin Kim et al, International Journal of Neuroscience, 2001), sleep deprived subjects showed no differences in distractibility, physical and visual functioning, reading, writing, arithmetic, and intellectual processes when compared to study participants who were allowed to sleep.  However, cognitive functions such as motor skills, rhythm, receptive and expressive speech, memory and complex verbal and arithmetic functions were decreased after sleep deprivation.  In another study (Drummond et al, Nature, 2000), researchers found “dynamic, compensatory changes in cerebral activation during verbal learning after sleep deprivation.” The researchers found that the prefrontal cortex (controls decision making and following through with thoughts and actions) and the parietal lobes (sensory integration) were key factors in allowing the subjects to function after sleep deprivation.  In other words, our brains work hard to compensate when we are sleep deprived and this may explain why some people claim they can exist on very little sleep – something we don’t recommend.

Read this article…

Working Nights Spanish Calendar Provides Critical Health and Safety Know-How for Hispanic Population

Press Release Issued Today to Announce the Working Nights Calendar for Hispanic Shift Workers:

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Circadian Age, Inc. – ‘Working Nights’ – a company dedicated to helping shift workers and their families adjust to their unique lifestyles, is announcing a new Spanish calendar. The 2010 Working Nights Spanish Calendar offers organizations with Hispanic workers the opportunity to show added concern about the health and safety of this group of employees, by providing them with educational material in their own language, to use at home.

“Hispanic shift workers face the same circadian rhythm and biological clock challenges that all 24/7 employees do” says Betsy Connolly, President of Circadian Age. “But often, language barriers make an already difficult situation worse. Spanish speaking workers are often less knowledgeable about chronic health conditions and safety prevention at work, which may result in more accidents and errors and increased health care costs.”

For the full release read here.

Calendar Contest Provides Healthy Benefits for Kids and Adults

BOSTON, MA (July 27, 2009) — ‘Working Nights’ announces an exciting new calendar contest. The 2010 Working Nights Creative Arts Calendar Contest offers organizations the opportunity to create a custom health and safety calendar incorporating winning illustrations or photographs submitted by company employees and their family members. For the full press release click on the link below:

Full Press Release

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Vitamin D Deficiency Updated

When a diet lacking in proper nutrients collides with a job that rarely lets you see the sun, vitamin D deficiency can rear its ugly head. Too much time in the sun of course can cause sunburns and raise the risk of skin cancer, but too little and the risk of heart disease skyrockets. Spending some relaxing time out in the sun and eating vitamin-D rich foods such as eggs can work wonders. Read this article…

Women and Sleep…Sleep Stress and Sleep Disturbances…Welcome to the Bedroom!

Kids and caffeine, stress and sleep apnea, menstruating giving way to menopause: women have a lot of unwanted guests in the bedroom when it comes to getting enough sleep. Studies have shown sleep makes a huge difference in concentration, memory, alertness, and even weight loss and happiness. Staying safe at work depends greatly on workers getting enough sleep. Over a quarter of shift workers report making mistakes from inattention several times a month, and almost half report having nodded off while driving to or from work. These tired mistakes can have sometimes fatal consequences. A healthy sleep schedule can save lives. Read this article…

Men and Sleep; Yes – Men have Challenges Too

Going for 22 hours without sleep is equivalent to having a blood alcohol level of 0.05. One is perfectly legal, but the other could cause you to be arrested for being behind the wheel and kicked out of work. Shift workers, especially night shift workers, might see nothing out of the ordinary in going 22 hours without sleep, but they pay for it with their health, and sometimes even with their lives. Exhaustion decreases alertness, attention and the ability to process new information, creating danger on the job. When working with machinery, as many shift workers do, or in health care of emergency services, one slip of attention can cause accidents, injury, and death. Bad sleep habits also set off a whole variety of health problems, including weight gain leading to obesity. Many existing issues, such as depression, asthma, and addiction to drugs or smoking can make sleep habits worse, and then continue to worsen themselves because of the troubled sleep. Sleeping pill prescriptions reached 56 million in 2008, showing the extent to which sleep problems haunt Americans. But this is a problem that can be conquered. Read this article…

Here Comes the Sun: Getting Enough Vitamin D When Working Shift Work

The threat of skin cancer looms on the one hand, but the threat of bone fractures, sleep disorders, and depression awaits on the other. What is a shift worker to do? Too much sun causes danger, but many shift workers- shuttling back and forth to work all day, toiling under the gleam of florescent lights, sleeping all afternoon- don’t get enough sunshine in their lives. Vitamin D helps the body use calcium to grow strong bones, as well as preventing rickets and aiding the immune system. While a few foods such as milk and eggs contain Vitamin D, the body mainly produces the vitamin in response to sun exposure, and so the vitamin languishes in dark, night work and shift work environments. It is important for shift workers to understand the workings of Vitamin D and how to get the right amount safely, since these days it’s the rare work schedule that supports a relaxing daily sunbathe. Read this article…

How Circadian Rhythms and Sleep Patterns Affect Learning and Performance

Circadian rhythms, or each person’s internal “body clock” that clicks through the day setting off urges to sleep, eat, and complete other daily actions, have a larger affect on our lives than one might realize. Every body has a definitive time of day in which it is most alert, least alert, most active and most tired, and screwing with this natural cycle can be disastrous. Shift work forces most people to work outside their natural, circadian determined working hours, like working nights or evenings, so that not only do workers find it more difficult to concentrate on their job while they are doing it, they also have more trouble relaxing and falling asleep during their off-hours. Your circadian biological clock can be “reset” over time using light therapy and gradually shifting sleep times to the desired pattern, but many shift workers try to sleep normal hours during their days off and opposite hours when they work night shifts, further disrupting their body clock. Several methods can help night workers and extended hours workers determine the workings of their own circadian rhythms and biological clock, and to better adapt themselves to shift work schedules. Read this article…

Spring Cleaning: Understanding the Physiological Benefits of Daylight Savings Time

Benjamin Franklin first suggested the idea of Daylight Savings Time in 1784, long before electricity, when keeping the clock’s hours more in line with the sun was the only way to avoid more time working in the dark for farmers in the winter. The idea caught on after World War I, yet many people still wonder about Daylight Savings Time’s meaning and importance. While it’s annoying to lose that one hour of sleep in the spring as you move the clock forward, Daylight Savings Time helps us improve our health and mental state by allowing us more time in the sun, and saves us money on energy bills by making sure more of our active hours are lit by daylight. Read this article…