The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research

Are you a shift worker? Do you find it difficult to sleep? Associate Professor Christopher Gordon, a research leader in the Woolcock’s Sleep and Circadian Research group spoke to 2SM’s Tim Webster last week about ways to manage your sleep.

Australia has around two million shift workers – people whose work hours don’t align with the normal day-night cycle. They’re awake in the middle of the night and trying to sleep during the daytime when their bodies are telling them to stay awake.

“This is a day-night cycle that’s been around for millions of years. We’ve processed our bodies to be like that. It doesn’t mean we cant’s stay awake later or get up earlier, but we do have to modify our behaviour to be able to cope with doing that,” explained Associate Professor Gordon.

There is currently a lot of research being conducted into whether people can adjust to this different schedule and Associate Professor Gordon says some cope better than others meaning that people will self-select out if it just isn’t working for them.

“Adapting does take time and it's got do with good habits that allow you to be able to manage that time when you're meant to be asleep but you're working – what we call sleep hygiene. It sounds simple but having a routine, sticking to that routine, making the room dark, reducing noise as much as possible (maybe wearing earplugs if it’s noisy at your place), not eating too much before you’re going to sleep and then, importantly, making it cool especially in the summer months when it’s hot during the day.”

Those with a “night owl” chronotype tend to gravitate towards and cope with shift work better but the real problem lies in rotating shift schedules.

When you rotate your shifts, you're challenging your body clock all the time. If you work a late shift and then have to be back at work the next day very early, you have a short sleep episode and need to maximise as much of that sleep as possible to increase alertness and productivity in the morning. That often also means using things caffeine to help you wake up.

While some use coffee to wake up, others like truckies may use sleeping pills to help them sleep. Webster asked “without using drugs, can you train yourself to cope with all of this?”

“You can. You can make sure that you're aligning with that light-dark cycle. If you’re doing night shift, it sounds odd, but try not to get too much light in the morning. The light from the sunlight is alterting the body clock that it’s time to wake up. So maybe try to act cool, put sunglasses on, go home like that and try to minimise the amount of light. The flip side is when you’re working at night, making sure you’re getting enough light to keep that body clock alerted and reorientate to that time period."

Light is really crucial – whether it's morning or night time, light is the key.

Find out more

• Shuft Work and Sleepiness
• Our Sleep and Circadian Research Group