Working Nights

Employee Health and Shift Work Lifestyle Training Leads to a Happier and Healthier Workforce….and to Increased Company Profits!

Is employee morale low at your company? Employee morale is higher when companies provide shift work lifestyle training.  Nearly 60% of employees at companies providing shift work lifestyle training rank their morale as good or excellent compared 35% without shift work training.[i] 

Some shift workers are at a greater risk for cardiovascular disease.  Want to save upwards of $6,500 for each of these at-risk employees per year?  And, protect your employees from this number one killer!

Workers in shift work operations generate, on average, more health care costs than other workers.  How about reducing overall company health care costs by 17% to 37% by targeting this population and helping them improve their health?[ii] Other cost savings may also be possible, including safety incident and workers’ compensation costs. Worker productivity may increase, possibly even up by 39%.[iii]

In extended 24-hour operations, a well-designed shift schedule or roster is unlikely to provide adequate protection from worker fatigue.  An integrated risk management system incorporates data analysis and training towards an effort of reducing fatigue and reducing a company’s costs, risks, and liabilities.[iv]

Among the shift worker population, 71% of men and 53% of women are overweight, 54% of workers have smoked or currently smoke, only 27.5% workers report having good nutritional practices, and 77% report not exercising regularly.  Add to this the sleep deprivation statistics, 27% of shift workers report making mistakes of inattention several times per month, and it’s clear that both shift workers and their employers would benefit from worker health and lifestyle training.[v]  In addition, a fatigue management program would help target the reasons shift workers aren’t always as attentive and productive as day-time workers and help companies and employees develop some initiatives to reduce employee fatigue levels. 

Each of the examples above show the overwhelming benefits to a company and its employees when an employee health and shift work lifestyle training program tailored to the company’s needs is implemented……..It’s all in the details, so read on for more information about targeting a program for your operation….. Read this article…

New Study Makes it Clear; We Need More than Six Hours of Sleep

Shift workers are known to get less sleep than people working regular days.  It’s been studied, written, and talked about for years.  Some people brag about how little sleep they can survive on.  Others complain about their lack of sleep and how tired they feel all the time.  A new study is going to make all of us take a much closer look at our sleeping habits.  It will show us why we need to do all we can to get in the recommended 6 – 8 hours per 24 hour period (we actually recommend 7 – 8).

Researcher from the University of Warwick and the Federico II University Medical School in Naples, Italy, have concluded that people who sleep for less than six hours each night were 12% more likely to die prematurely than those who get the recommended 6-8 hours.  This research offers indisputable evidence of the need for adequate sleep. The researchers also found that long sleepers, those who sleep 9 hours or more regularly, are likely to have other underlying health conditions.

The study included more than 1.3 million participants, followed up for up to 25 years, with more than 100,000 deaths recorded.  The study was published in the May 3^rd issue of the journal, Sleep.

For information about working shift work and sleep click on the links below.  Each one will give you or your employees, if you’re a manager, ideas about how to get more sleep while working shift work.

Insomnia and Shift Work

Men and Sleep

Women and Sleep

Restorative Sleep Improves Memory and Creativity

©2010 Circadian Age, Inc. ‘Working Nights’

WSJ Covers Heart Risk at Work and Seasonal Affective Disorder

There were two articles in the Wall Street Journal today that are significant to shift workers. One story is about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and the other’s about a new study reporting that men who didn’t confront colleagues or bosses who treated them unfairly doubled their risk of heart attack.

Seasonal Affective Disorder – the article states that SAD “affects an estimated 6% of Americans, causing depression, lethargy, irritability and a desire to avoid social situations. It can also create an urge to overeat, particularly carbohydrates. As many as 15% of people in the U.S. may have a milder version that includes only some of these symptoms.” What the article leaves out, that all shift workers know, is that SAD symptoms are routinely felt by workers at jobs outside the normal day-time hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. See more about this in our articles on Vitamin D and Serotonin.

Reducing Heart Risk with Confrontation – the lead researcher from Stockholm University and her research partners asked 2,755 men how they typically responded to unfair treatment at work. Those who said they just let it pass and said/did nothing had significantly more heart attacks during the next ten years. After adjusting for age, socio-economic factors, risk behaviors, job strain, and biological risk factors, the risk of heart and death from a cardiovascular event was 2.3 times greater than it was for those who said they confronted those treating them unfairly. Read more about how shift workers can manage stress on the job and about controlling bullying at work.

To read the two Wall Street Journal articles:

Seasonal Affective Disorder
Reducing Heart Risk with Confrontation

©2009Circadian Age, Inc. ‘Working Nights”

Yale Murder Highlights Workplace Violence Risks

According to The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), two million Americans are subject to workplace violence each year. Defined as a threat of violence or an actual violent action taken against workers, some recent cases have heightened concerns about workplace violence. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data indicates that fatal occupational injuries due to assaults and violent acts were actually down 8% between 2007 and 2008 (864 in 2007 to 794 in 2008). But, during the same period, office suicides reached an all time high since the data has been captured by the BLS (251 in 2008 compared to 196 in 2007) – a 28% increase.

In January 2009, a survey of risk security practitioners by Security Director News found that despite all the recent focus on terrorism, 49% reported that workplace violence topped their security concerns.

Which workplaces are the most violent and how can we make all of our workplaces more safe?
Read this article…

Another Important Reason to Assess Levels of Vitamin D

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among those with diabetes. And, according to researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, people with diabetes and low Vitamin D have more than double the risk of cardiovascular disease. One possible reason (according to the study’s authors) – diabetics who are deficient in vitamin D don’t process cholesterol normally, so it builds up in their blood vessels and increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. Why is this important to shift workers? Because some studies have shown that shift workers may have a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and shift workers are also are at a greater risk of having a vitamin D deficiency. This study may provide more support for why shift workers have a greater likelihood of suffering from cardiovascular disease. And, it also sheds some light on a possible way to reduce the risk of heart disease – besides exercise, good nutrition, and maintaining proper weight, make sure you get enough vitamin D.
Read this article…

Feeling the Impacts of Chronic Stress Brings You Back to Old Habits

Do you feel frazzled and overwhelmed? Are you having trouble sleeping? Are you anxious and impatient? These are just some of the symptoms of chronic stress. According to a new study, the effects of chronic stress force us back into old habits. And this may actually cause us to make bad decisions because in some situations, we are better off inhibiting a habit and instead using a goal oriented strategy – an effort that will force us to approach the situation differently. But when we are stressed we are more likely to just fall back on our habitual approach to dealing with the situation as opposed to being creative and forging a new path.
Read this article…

Preventing Accidents and Injuries at Work

Besides general health risks, shift workers also face a wide range of faster-acting dangers. Every seven seconds another worker gets injured, and every day, machinery accidents, falls, crashes, and other accidents take lives. Older workers and minority workers face higher injury and fatality rates. Read here the startling facts about on-the-job death and injury, the financial and health costs, the facts of why accidents happen and tips for making work a safer place. Read this article…

Running on Empty- Safe Driving on a Shift Work Schedule

While people worry about the dangers of sky diving, bungee jumping, and other death-defying activities, in fact one of the most dangerous things you can do is turn that little metal key in your car every day. In the U.S., someone dies in a car accident once every 13 seconds. Since shift workers experience many of the symptoms that are the most frequent causes of car crashes- fatigue and drowsiness, nodding off from lack of sleep, drug use, and use of sleep aids- driving safety is especially important from shift workers. The perils of a commute after a long day (or especially after working nights) can be deadly.
Read this article…

The Impact of Fatigue on Driving

Most people know that driving after drinking enough alcohol could be a death wish, but driving home after a seemingly endless shift could be equally dangerous. After 22 hours without sleep, you act the same behind the wheel as if you had a blood alcohol level of 0.08, the legal driving limit. It won’t get you pulled over (yet, although several states have laws pending to outlaw driving while drowsy) but falling asleep at the wheel can send you hurtling towards a tree or another vehicle with no control over your car just as easily as alcohol or drugs can. The urge to reach home and bed can sometimes overtake caution on the road. Truck drivers and night-owl teens are also greatly affected by this risk, which often goes unnoticed in our up-and-at-’em culture. Read this article…

Improving Workplace Safety and Security

As if shift work’s threat of injury, increased rates of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes weren’t enough, as well as the potential for cancer hanging over your head, it turns out shift work can kill you much faster than any of those options. The good news is that taking care for your safety, simply paying attention, and getting enough sleep so drowsiness doesn’t hit you at the wrong time can hugely lower your risks on the job. In fact, the danger that causes the most shift worker fatalities is something that almost every person- day worker, night worker, shift worker, or unemployed- does every day. This danger is simply driving on the highway. Other dangers include working with machinery and robbery and homicide, especially for people coming home after a night shift. Read more to learn about surprising dangers and how to keep yourself safe. Read this article…