Working Nights

Human Fatigue in Shift Work Operations – Causes and Solutions

“Weariness or exhaustion from labor, exertion, or stress.”

-          Per Merriam-Webster 

Fatigue is a lack of energy or motivation.  It’s severity can range from the exhaustion resulting from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) to the weariness that results from working all day and taking care of a baby during the night – or for many shift workers, working all night and taking care of the home front during the day! 

This posting looks at CFS and regular, everyday fatigue, assessing how working shift work causes fatigue and what shift workers can do about it. Read this article…

Can Music Calm a Shift Worker’s Soul – and Improve Sleep as Well?

Where can you find Coldplay, Betty Buckley, The Beastie Boys, Bruce Hornsby, and Vanessa Carleton all working together? Seems like an unlikely group, doesn’t it?

These musicians and many other creative types are big supporters of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF). Created in 1995, IMNF was founded “to restore, maintain and improve people’s physical, emotional and neurologic functioning through the systematic use of music.” IMNF collaborates with researchers and practitioners around the world to advance the understanding and application of the power of music to promote healing and wellness. Some of IMNF’s most significant research and startling findings are in the areas of music and its impact on language, memory, and recovery from nerve injury.

How does music affect shift workers? Should it be listened to at work? Does it help you fall asleep? Can it lower stress when coping with variable schedules?
Read this article…

The Problem of Migraines and Shift Work

Each year upwards of 90% of the U.S. population will feel headache pain and 13% will suffer from a migraine. Nearly 30 million Americans have migraines. Researchers from Johns Hopkins, after pooling results from 21 studies, involving 622,381 men and women, have found that migraine headaches are associated with more than double the likelihood of the most common kind of stroke – those occurring when blood supply to the brain is suddenly cut off by the buildup of plaque or a blood clot.

The National Headache Association estimates that headaches cost up to $17 billion dollars in absenteeism, lost productivity, and medical expenses each year. Ninety percent of respondents to a NHA 2008 survey indicated that headaches affected their work performance. Migraines are triggered by many different issues such as stress, environmental factors (e.g. lighting and eye strain), depression, or certain foods and some medications. One major factor in the development of migraines is lack of sleep.

Are shift workers more likely to suffer from migraines?
Read this article…

November is National Heartburn Month! Is this Something to Celebrate?

Do you feel bloated?  Is your stomach is churning day and night?  To alleviate your heartburn and acid indigestion, do you regularly pop antacid pills?  If your answers are yes, you’re not alone.  People who work shifts often suffer from gastrointestinal (GI) disease.  In fact, up to 75% of night workers have G.I. problems – and peptic ulcers are up to 5 times more frequent.  Nearly 40% of shift workers report taking antacids several times a month.[i]  According to the National Heartburn Alliance (NHBA), over 25 million Americans suffer from heartburn on a daily basis and most of them attribute it to the foods they eat.    

So, if you’re one of the 25 million, or your best buddy or spouse is, what can you do to get help? 

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.

Untreated Sleep Apnea Outcomes Continue to be More and More Severe

Since shift workers are more likely to suffer from sleep disorders than day time workers, these workers and their family members, employers, insurance providers, and medical practitioners should be especially knowledgeable about the various types of sleep disorders. And, they should stay on top of new information that is released about chronic sleep issues that may impact them. Sleeping is fun – just think of all those wonderful dreams. Not dreaming, maybe you have a sleep disorder. Read here for information on sleep apnea. See other parts of our blog for insomnia, restless leg syndrome and other disorders.
Read this article…

Slowing Down the Aging Process – Tips for Shift Workers

Life expectancy has been increasing year after year in many countries, including the U.S. However the U.S. ranks 42nd in life expectancy but number one in health care costs per capita. Clearly this has gotten the attention of the Obama administration. Question is whether this significant issue will be solved by focusing more on health care prevention, limiting access to care once chronic health issues are diagnosed, by better managing how diagnoses are determined or by all of these things. Shift workers have unique challenges that need to be managed proactively by workers, employers, insurance companies, and medical practitioners.
Read this article…

Lowering Stress and Anxiety for Shift Workers (and for others too!)

Stress and anxiety are normal parts of life. Sometimes we all need a little angst to keep us going: to make the best presentation, ace the test, or get the job offer. But over time, the effects of too much tension can be mentally and physically taxing.

Extended periods of stress can cause destructive changes in the body, such as depression or a suppressed immune system, potentially leading to heart disease, stroke, or cancer. Stress and anxiety can be felt physically, appearing as an increased heart rate and high blood pressure, sweating, dry mouth, tight muscles, twitching, abdominal pain, and headaches. Emotional responses to stress may include feeling restless, being unable to concentrate, and talking negatively to yourself.

Shift workers experience unique challenges in their life and jobs that can lead to increased tension. Without proper planning, work/life/family balance can get completely out of synch as a result of working rotating shifts or long hours. As a result of the struggle to adapt to ever changing work schedules, shift workers often don’t get enough sleep.

While most sleep experts suggest seven to eight hours of sleep is needed to feel well-rested, most people don’t get this much, and shift workers get even less than the day time population. The National Institute of Health has reported that people who work at night or have frequent major shifts in their work hours, or who have inactive lifestyles, are at a greater risk of developing insomnia. Many shift workers also report that they don’t exercise frequently, so the problem only gets worse. Read this article…

Shiftworkers, Take a Deep Breath- Reducing the Risk of Lung Disease

On a normal day, we breathe nearly 25,000 times; the air we breathe in contains mostly oxygen and nitrogen. But air also has things in it that can hurt our lungs; bacteria, viruses, tobacco smoke, car exhaust, and other pollutants can be in the air. People with lung disease have difficulty breathing. These breathing problems may even prevent the body from getting enough oxygen.

A low oxygen level puts excess stress on the entire body, but especially on the heart. When oxygen levels are low, pressures inside the heart increase; the heart muscle becomes enlarged and does not pump as it should, resulting in heart failure. It has been well documented that degenerative diseases, including cancer and premature aging, start with low oxygen levels in the body. Also, as we age, we lose vital capacity and the ability to effectively obtain adequate oxygen. After age 25 we lose 10% lung (respiratory) capacity every 10 years, due to shallow breathing.

Lung disease is responsible for one in seven deaths in the United States each year. More than 35 million Americans are living with chronic lung disease including asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Other diseases impacting the lung include lung cancer, tuberculosis, pneumonia, HIV/AIDS, pulmonary fibrosis and sarcoidosis (inflammation producing tiny lumps of cells in various organs, including the lungs), and influenza. Lung disease and breathing problems are the number one killer of babies younger than one year old. Read this article…

Are We Breaking the Health Care Bank for Shift Workers?- Controlling the Rising Cost of Health Care

Long nights, little sleep, changing shifts- the collision of stress and exhaustion can cause other types of collisions for shift workers, such as collisions between cars with tired drivers, collisions in the arteries that cause heart attacks and strokes, and a whole host of other worries. Night work and shift jobs cause a huge variety of health problems for shift workers, problems that can rip chunks out of struggling checking accounts. Rising health care costs become a concern for managers, who have to shoulder a good deal of the cost with insurance, and for workers, who not only have to deal with their illness or injury but with the stress of paying for it. No one wants to choose between their salary and their health, or their job and their life. Management needs to spend money efficiently to keep everyone going strong. Zeroing in on extended hours workers will provide an employer more bang for their health care buck. Read this article…

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) – Update

Up to ten percent of the population may suffer from Restless Leg Syndrome, a misunderstood and often ignored disorder. It affects more women than men, and causes more discomfort at night than during the day. While some people who suffer from RLS may not realize it is a true disorder and avoid medical help, RLS harms sleep patterns and may be worsened by uneven sleep schedules of shift workers. Read this article…

Health Insurance – Costs and Opportunities

Shift work brings more health and safety dangers than normal hours work, and so the rising costs of health care are reaping huge consequences among shift workers. Today, patients pay far more of the medical cost themselves than they did in 1990, when employers took up more of the slack. Coupled with a rapid growth of medical bureaucracy, which shoots up costs, the greater responsibility for their own payments is hurting many shift workers. Health care costs hurt companies, but so do sick or injured workers who come into work because they can’t afford not to, or who miss work more often because they can’t afford better medical care. Health care system reform boosts health and productivity in the workplace. Read this article…

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…

Preventing and Managing Diabetes

Diabetes is on the rise in America, and shift workers are right in its path. Over three quarters of shift workers report not exercising regularly, and almost the same amount can not say they maintain a healthy, nutritious diet. Many cope with the demands of a mixed up sleep schedule and long shifts by drinking cup after cup of caffeine and eating sugary foods to boost energy levels, and yet energy to exercise still stays out of reach. All these factors greatly increase the risk of diabetes, which can be genetic or developed and can strike at any time of life. Night shift and shift work lifestyles bring plenty of health and safety issues along with them, so the individual shift worker is left to manage their health and weight as best they can despite the obstacles. Read this article…

Shift Work and Worker Health: Beyond the Shift Work and Cancer Tie

Over twenty percent of the U.S. workforce holds jobs that the World Health Organization now considers possible causes of cancer. Most people who work extended hours, shifts, or nights have probably already seen the “Graveyard Shift Soon to Be Listed As ‘Probable’ Cause of Cancer” article, and gotten appropriately nervous. But, for the bad news before the good, shift work brings health risks that go far beyond the big threat of cancer. The good news is that shift work does not automatically cause cancer, of course, and many habits common among shift workers have long been known to increase the risk of cancer. So, certain lifestyle changes can quickly cause your risk of cancer, and other diseases and chronic problems, to plummet. Read this article…