Night Shift: How Working at Night Can Hurt Your Long-Term Sleep

At one time, a lack of sleep or an inability to sleep was mostly just considered and annoyance. Now, we know that difficulties with sleeping over the long term can have severe health implications. Your body works hard to maintain something known as “homeostasis.” This means your body thrives on routine. This is also true of your wake/ sleep cycle.

While your body can adapt to sleeping during the day and being awake at night, it is not our natural rhythm. Your body can adapt, but if it adapts long enough, changes can become permanent. Working a night shift can have long-term effects on your wake/sleep cycle and potentially even your health. Here are 3 ways to minimize the damage that working the night shift can have on your sleep and your health.

It may be difficult to go to bed and get up at the same time every day, but it will significantly improve your ability to stay alert and focused and have the least impact on your overall health. Maintaining a constant schedule can be difficult for people with families or other daytime commitments, but try and maintain as regular of a sleep schedule as possible.

Your wake/ sleep cycle is actually regulated by a naturally occurring hormone called melatonin. You can also take melatonin as a supplement, which can help you adapt to changes in your wake/ sleep cycle. Melatonin is not a sleeping aid in and of itself, but rather helps boost the natural hormone in your body which helps regulate sleep.

While medications should never be used as a long-term solution, they can certainly help when you are switching schedules or during a short busy patch when you can’t maintain a consistent schedule. Modern sleeping medications include products like Lunesta, which can help you get a full 7-8 hours sleep, or more mild products like Sonata, which can give you a little extra boost to just help you drop off into sleep. A medication like Modafinil can also help you stay awake and alert at night.

Working a night shift is best when you are on the night shift long term. What is even more difficult and disruptive is when you have to switch back and forth between day and night shifts. One of the most critical elements to getting a good night’s (or day’s) sleep is simply to maintain a consistent schedule.