Night Shifts

Nights are a strange set of shifts. For me my entire life is upside down for 7 days. You eat when you should be sleeping, you're sleeping when you should be up and about and now the nights are drawing in the chances of seeing any daylight for the week is nigh on impossible. I work a 5 week roster so the other 4 weeks of the shift are during daylight hours.

Now, I understand and accept that due to the nature of the job night shifts are inevitable but why in the modern age I have to do 7 of them is beyond me?

The most common performance challenges of night-shift work come from the human biological clock or cycles. Three main cycles, or rhythms, have been identified: ultradian (20 hours or less), circadian (20 to 28 hours), and infradian (28 hours or more). Circadian comes from the Latin (circa, about; dies, day) and is based on the human internal-body clock that runs on a schedule of about 24 hours. To understand this 24-hour cycle, let's look at what influences it.

Biological factors include the rise and fall of human-body temperatures throughout the day and the daily cyclical production of different hormones. Human-body temperatures can vary by nearly five percent in a single 24-hour period. A low temperature peak at approximately 4 a.m. and a high temperature peak near 5 p.m. coincide with a police officers typical alertness extremes.

The social cycle is dictated by societal norms, such as when the smell of breakfast wafts into your dream, or when the bin men tumbles the dustbins down the street. It's difficult to overcome these sleep influences, even with reduced light and noise for daytime sleeping. The clock on the wall, habitual sleep, meal times, and work and leisure activities are prime examples of social time cues. People seldom or never adjust completely to the night shift or to a new rhythm.

Sleeping at the right times, in best coordination with the circadian rhythm, is referred to as having good sleep hygiene. Postshift sleep should be coordinated with the circadian rhythm. Studies show daytime sleep periods are typically 41 percent (three hours) shorter and less restorative than nighttime sleep. A shift from the normal sleep, work, leisure schedule to one of work, leisure, sleep is required to allow sleep during the normal afternoon trough in body temperature and peak in error tendency. Studies show a moderate error peak around 3 p.m., with a much more severe error peak around 3 a.m.

There is an old saying that shift work takes ten years off your life and in many ways I believe it. It takes two days for the human body to adjust its hormones to cope with night shifts. This switch from diurnal to nocturnal mode then allows your body to cope with extended night shifts. Hence the reason you tend to sleep better and longer towards the end of your set of night shifts. The problem lies when you need your body to switch back from nocturnal to diurnal. This takes 6 weeks. So if you are working a 5 week roster and it takes 6 weeks to switch back, technically you are working with your hormones on permanent nights. To counter this problem, night shifts shouldn't be over more than two shifts then switch back to days to counter the hormone imbalance.

Then there is the problem with fatigue. You have to be extra careful with response driving at night. The glare from headlights, poor or cold weather takes its toll on a drivers ability to concentrate but when you're responding on blues and twos in the middle of the night you have an extra responsibility to be able to get to your destination safely.

All of this and you have to deal with potentially dangerous and or violent situations involving people who maybe more alert than you when you arrive!

Over time this accumulates into stress which can lead to illness. I already suffer with a thyroid problem which is upsetting the balance of my hormones. The Federation are looking into the possibility that it may have been caused by the shifts. There are scientists studying the effects of night shifts and an increased risk of cancer and heart problems.

I love the job to bits but as the song goes "Too much love will kill you!"

A healthy bunch aren't we?