Working Nights

Linking Sleep Loss and Obesity

Results from a 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicate that an estimated 66 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese. The same survey indicates that an estimated 17 percent of children and adolescents ages 2-19 years are overweight.

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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…

When Fall Arrives: Preparing Children (and Parents) for Going Back to School

Any parent who has ever faced the Herculean struggle of trying to drag a teenager out of bed in the morning for school has felt the stress September brings. Most parents have probably wondered at one point or another why their teenager seems so drained all of a sudden. Now, science shows that Circadian rhythms, that determine when we feel hungry, tired, and experience other bodily urges on a daily basis, do in fact shift as we age. As we go through different stages of life, we not only need different amounts of sleep, our bodies need that sleep at different times. A teenager feels alert and ready to learn at different times than do younger siblings, parents, or older people. For parents that work nights or shifts, helping understand children’s sleep schedules when you’re busy worrying about your own can be tough. Adapting to age-specific schedules can help families be the most prepared to enter the school year with the least stress possible. Read this article…