The 17 Day Diet (39 page)

Loaded with vitamin B1, which protects myelin, a fatty substance that helps facilitate communication among cells.

High in folate, a B vitamin important for memory and nerve cell health.

Packed with iron, which is involved memory, concentration, and mental functioning.

Full of omega-3 fatty acids, which help build and maintain myelin.

A probiotic food that has been found in many studies to boost mental alertness. Yogurt and other probiotic foods are great foods for night shift work, since they help your digestion.

The Exercise Connection

Let’s look on the bright side of the night shift: You get to go to the gym while almost everybody else is at work. Try picking a good time early in your “day.” Even if you do only half your usual workout, you’ll be moving your body, and you’ll feel better. Seventeen minutes of exercise at least three times each week (though not just before bedtime) will help reduce stress and feelings of fatigue and increase your sense of well-being.

Be consistent with your training and add in some fun cross-training activities. You might have more time for outdoor bicycle rides, for example, with your night-shift schedule. As you catch up on your sleep, train longer and/or harder until you’re back to your former training level.

Sleep Sense

Working when everyone else is asleep has advantages: less traffic for commuters, seeing newspapers being delivered, being around when the kids get home from school and maybe even a fatter paycheck. But getting enough rest isn’t one of them.

Night-shift workers typically don’t get the seven to eight hours of shuteye the vast majority of people need, and that’s dangerous for your health, your weight and for other people on the road when you’re yawning behind the wheel.

NOT THE USUAL 9 TO 5: Other Health Effects of Shift Work

Conditions

Cardiovascular

Breast Cancer

Diabetes

Reason

Shift workers have more adverse lifestyle behaviors, such as higher tendency to smoke, not exercise, and eat junk food—all of which hurt the heart. In one study, 665 day workers were compared with 659 shift workers. The late-night workers had twice the risk of low HDL cholesterol, 40% higher risk of high triglycerides, and 19% higher risk of abdominal adiposity.

The risk may be associated with exposure to light during the night, when you should be sleeping. The hormone melatonin may play a role. Production of the hormone, which usually occurs during the “dark” period of a person’s day, is disrupted by light exposure. The resulting dearth of melatonin may allow very small colonies of existing cancerous cells to flourish.

Shift work can disrupt the body’s insulin-making processes, potentially causing insulin resistance. With insulin resistance, the body doesn’t use insulin properly. Glucose gets locked out of cells, and it clutters up the bloodstream.

Strategies

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Stop smoking

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Exercise

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Eat nutritiously

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Don’t take melatonin, unless specifically recommended by a physician. While you’d think it would be helpful, it can actually throw a wrench into the smooth functioning of the circadian system and worsen the disruption to your biological clock.

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Have regular checkups to monitor changes in blood sugar.

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Avoid refined carbohydrates such as sweets, white bread and baked goods.

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Exercise on a regular basis to help the body better regulate blood sugar.

Sleeping during the day tends to be less restful, too, so no wonder one in five night workers reports falling asleep on the job. I can’t give you a surefire recipe for sound sleep during the day, but I have several techniques that should help. Even if each technique helps you sleep only a little better, all together they may let you get the rest you deserve and need.

One key strategy is to maintain a somewhat constant schedule. Don’t sleep from noon to 8:00 p.m. on Friday, then try sleeping nights on Saturday and Sunday, then switch back to day sleeping on Monday. Even if you alter your schedule somewhat, don’t change too much. A study in the
New Zealand Journal of Psychology
advises a strategy called “anchor sleep,” in which you include a three- to four-hour block of sleep time on non-shift-work days that coincides with your anticipated sleep time on shift-work days.

Sleep as soon as possible after the night shift. If you delay sleep after the night shift, your body will begin to warm up and prepare for the day’s activity.

Change your lights. You want the period while you’re sleeping—whether you’re a night-shift or a daytime worker—to be as dark as possible. Consider blackout curtains, a sleep mask, or anything else that reduces light. This is vital, since melatonin, the hormone of sleep which increases drowsiness, is suppressed by daylight even through closed eyelids. Light passes through your eyes and sets your brain’s internal clock. You want to trick your brain into believing that day is night, and vice versa. No light? It must be night.

No matter what your shift, you may want to consider installing a lowwattage red bulb in the bathroom so that when you get up in the middle of your sleep cycle, it isn’t disturbed by the shock of bright lights.

Sleep in a quiet part of the house, away from traffic noise and household activity. Tell family and friends about your schedule and ask them to call you only during waking hours. Give them a copy of your shift schedule.

Regulate your use of caffeine. Many of us toss back coffee to keep up energy at work. Not a good idea. It’s tempting for night workers to use caffeine at the end of their shifts because it’s when they’re most sluggish, but that’s only likely to continue to chip away at sleep quality.

Eat a banana or drink some warm milk before going to bed. Both these foods contain l-tryptophan, an amino acid known to be a natural sleep inducer. L-tryptophan releases serotonin, a sleep-inducing brain chemical.

Avoid alcohol prior to sleep. It is a diuretic and interferes with the quality of sleep.

Try an herbal tea prior to bedtime. Teas containing valerian root can be a safe, effective way to sleep when you really need to. As with any sleep aid, it should be used sparingly, however. Some people feel groggy upon awakening if they’ve taken valerian. (The best sleep aid is regular exercise.)

If you’re a shift worker, you have to take extra care of yourself. It’s worth your quality of life and livelihood to do so.

Review:

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Shift workers suffer from obesity and other illnesses more often than people who work regular shifts.

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If you’re a shift worker, avoid junk food. Have your main meal in the middle of the day if you work an afternoon shift, and have dinner just before your shift starts if you work the midnight shift.

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Populate your night with natural foods that keep you alert.

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Maintain a consistent exercise schedule.

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Practice good sleep health: keep your bedroom as dark as possible, sleep in a quiet part of your house, limit your use of caffeine and alcohol, and have a snack such as a banana and some warm milk prior to going to bed.

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Talk to your family doctor if you think you might be suffering from shift work disorder.

CHECK-UP:
Do You Have Shift Work Disorder?

The term shift work disorder, or SWD, may be new to you. But if you have a nontraditional work schedule, or work shifts, and are often tired on the job or have trouble sleeping, it’s a condition you should learn more about.

Shift work disorder is a recognized medical condition that can be diagnosed and treated by a doctor. It occurs when your body’s internal clock, or circadian rhythm, is out of sync with your work schedule.

Many people who work outside of the traditional 9-to-5 schedule need to be awake when the body’s natural cycle calls for sleep. This disturbance of the circadian rhythm can lead to excessive sleepiness during waking hours or trouble sleeping during sleeping hours. If you’re a shift worker, take the following quiz to see if you might have shift work disorder. Circle either “yes” or “no.”

1.
Do you feel tired no matter how much sleep you try to get?

Yes No

2.
Are you often less alert than you could be?

Yes No

3.
Do you have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep?

Yes No

4.
Are you unaware of your total sleeping hours per day?

Yes No

5.
Have you been making more errors at work than usual due to lack of focus and general sense of fatigue?

Yes No

6.
Do you frequently suffer from heartburn or indigestion?

Yes No

7.
Do you experience occasional morning headaches?

Yes No

8.
Has your work, home, or social life been negatively affected by sleeping problems?

Yes No

9.
Have you been experiencing unexplained weight gain?

Yes No

10.
Have you been experiencing irregular menstrual cycles?

Yes No

11.
Do you fall asleep while driving, in meetings, while reading a book, or while watching television?

Yes No

Scoring:
If you answer yes to three or more of these questions, you may be dealing with shift work disorder. Consult your doctor. He or she can help manage your symptoms. Only a change in shift work can resolve SWD, but there are some things you can do to try to cope with your symptoms, and they bear repeating:

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Avoid alcohol and other substances before bedtime

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Get a full eight hours of sleep each day

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Turning on bright lights may help diminish drowsiness when you need to be awake

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Eliminate noise and light from your sleep area

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Try to stick to your sleep and wake schedule, even on weekends