I am consumed with nostalgia when I leave my house, I feel a chill running down my spine and there is a void in my head! When I return in the morning I cannot begin to rest when life begins….
This article is dedicated to all those brave men and women who, due to life circumstances, have to work at night.
Have you thought about how many people work while you are sleeping comfortably in your bed? The list is undoubtedly quite long.
While I was working as a radio announcer back in 1993, when I made the program “Noche de trasnoche”, I ended up getting to know a special and sacrificial world that is “los trasnochadores” (I also worked 12 years doing rotating shifts in a company). I took this job as an announcer by accident to be able to carry out and finance my social communicator studies during the day.
This job of Announcer allowed me to get to know this other world, that of night owls or night owls.
I remember that the auditors called me to send cordial greetings to each other and their respective families, these were among others: Guards, police, prison staff, detectives, those who listened to me in companies while producing, taxi drivers, clinics, restaurants, hospitals, fishing boats… in reality the list was very extensive that also included some solitary or solitary students and there was never a lack of the patient who, unable to sleep, wanted to let off steam by telling me about their sorrows (incidentally, this has been one of the jobs that helped me a lot to enrich myself as a person).
I remember two calls that shocked me a lot: that of a policeman who was very afraid that night and that of a guard who, crying, told me that his wife had cheated on him with another man because of his work.
These are just some of the problems that night owls face: insomnia, irritability, anguish, depression, digestive disorders, panic attacks, cardiovascular diseases due to chronic stress, together with addictions to tranquilizers, excitants or alcohol and tobacco. The main cause of disorders is that daytime rest is "not very restorative", since during the day the biological parameters have different natural constants than at night, when the body prepares to rest. Natural and healthy biological rhythms coincide with day and night. These disorders involve physical and mental asthenia, which entails "difficulty making efforts and an empty-headed feeling", as well as "irritability,intolerance to the small aggressions of the environment and alteration of the relations between the work colleagues and the family ».
"Older workers than the rest are more vulnerable to disorders and have a higher risk of premature aging and increased morbidity," since each human being has a greater or lesser adaptation to these hours.
The causes that have promoted the boom in night work are diverse:
- Technique: Continuity requirement of a certain process. Economic: Make the most of the investment made. Social: Increasing demand for the continuity of the provision of certain services 24 hours a day.
The drawbacks
Working "late" causes conflicts with family, friends… but also has a direct impact on the body. Sleep disturbances: Daylight sends a signal to the body and reinforces the natural tendency of your circadian clock to wake up. Sleep is affected by problems linked to the activity of the rest of society: traffic, the ringing of the telephone, etc. Sleeping in these conditions causes less recovery of mental fatigue. On average, it is estimated that a night worker sleeps one to two hours less than a day worker.
- Alterations in eating habits:
- Gastrointestinal problems, appetite, constipation, heartburn, abominable pain… In the long term, they can suffer from serious illnesses such as chronic gastritis, colitis and gastroduodenal ulcers. For all these ills there is an explanation: dinner. Often these workers take it cold, quickly and without appetite. Abusive use of stimulants such as coffee or alcohol, which are consumed to improve wakefulness, and sleeping pills used for sleeping during the day, which are aggressive for unprotected gastric mucosa.
- Psychic effects:
- Emotional tension or stress. Nervousness, anxiety, asthenia, depression and aggressiveness. Reduction of the cognitive capacity of surveillance and control, especially in continuous process work. Memory disorder
- Alterations in social life:
- Negative effects on family relationships and even on the health of other family members (especially occurs in women). Negative effects on social life, regarding participation in all kinds of activities: civic, cultural or sports. The schedule makes it difficult to carry out all kinds of social gatherings, so there is a certain isolation that requires the worker an extra effort to meet these needs.
How to adapt to a night job
According to research by Fred Jung, a registered nurse and assistant instructor at the University of Texas at the Austin School of Nursing, if sleep patterns are altered, some of these problems may be alleviated.
Mr. Jung conducted a sleep study with a group of employees working at night in an assembly plant. These were his observations to this group, made up of men and women who performed different types of work.
These people saw symptoms similar to those of jet lag syndrome, symptoms that seemed to intensify when the days off changed their schedule and they slept at night. Therefore, Jung concluded that it is better to follow the same sleep patterns adopted on weekdays throughout the week, since the body needs several days for its biological rhythms to adjust to a new sleep pattern.
The results of Mr. Jung's research indicate that something that seems to help maintain biological rhythms is that days off sleep at least four hours in a row during the usual sleep on weekdays. He calls those hours of sleep a dream of consolidation.
Diet, social patterns, and light exposure were also found to influence the fit of those who work at night.
With the data obtained in his research, Mr. Jung has given several guidelines for those who work at night:
- Try to sleep for the same length of time every day, preferably in the late morning and early afternoon. Plan your activities around your sleep period. Don't worry if you don't always sleep during the time you would prefer; A short period of regular daytime sleep is better than no sleep at all. Eliminate annoying noises (use earplugs or connect an answering machine to your phone) and sleep in a dark room. Eat a large, high-protein meal early in your day. Proteins provide a continuous supply of glucose -producer of energy- and stimulate the adrenal glands to keep you awake.
In the middle of the day, eat a moderate meal that contains protein, and avoid carbohydrate-rich snacks, as they may clear you up for now, but they will make you tired after an hour or two. Reserve carbohydrates for the last meal of the day, as they will prepare you for a restful sleep, but do not eat immediately before going to bed, since it takes a couple of hours to digest the food.
- Don't drink alcohol to make you sleepy. Alcohol deprives you of the type of sleep you need for psychological health and wellness. When you wake up, turn on the light, or if there is a light outside, go out into the daylight, exercise, move, and talk to people. Activity and light will stimulate your brain and help your body resynchronize for its nighttime work schedule. Treat yourself well. Don't compound stress by living unhealthily. Including regular exercise, a proper diet, and enough restful sleep in your daily routine will help you perform better, feel better, and even look better.
These are the opinions of one researcher, but others may propose different solutions to the problem.
I hope I have contributed something to those who stay up late, there are other practical tips based on my personal experience that helped me endure those almost thirteen years of last night. If you want to know more about it write me and leave me your address on my blog I will gladly reply.
