These days many youngsters and fresh graduates prefer to work in night shifts as it gives them more money. But along with money, working late nights and changing shifts gives them various health hazards.
The common problems that many night shift workers face are:
1. Stress – Irregular working hours and pressure to perform better contribute to high stress and sometimes it could be even traumatic.
2. Disorders – Various disorders like insomnia, fatigue and disorientation accompany night work
3. Obesity – Physical inactivity, excessive eating, wrong food choices and irregular eating habits make one gain weight
4. Gastrointestinal and digestive problems – Wrong eating habits contribute to indigestion, stomachache, heartburn and loss of appetite
5. Cardiovascular diseases and blood pressure — Night shift workers are more prone to cardiovascular problems
6. Behavioral and emotional disturbances – Night shift working causes many disturbances in one’s life like depression, decline in self esteem and resentment, anxiety, hopelessness, withdrawal from social interactions, strong urge to cry without specific incident, avoidance of previously enjoyed activities, phobia, fears and unwanted thoughts.
With a few essential changes, night shift workers can avoid the health complications of shift works and ease adverse symptoms. A healthy lifestyle and, most importantly, right nutrition choices help you save yourself from the adverse effects of night shift work.
Here are some healthy eating tips to stop weight gain and other health complications.
1. Drinking at least two liters of water a day helps in improving digestion. Lack of water intake results in thirst headaches and fatigue.
2. Balanced varied meals and regular meal timings keep up your health.
3. Increase fibre content in your diet. Oat bran and ragi are rich in fiber content. Take in complex carbohydrates/whole grain carbohydrates instead of refined carbohydrate.
4. Plan the time you take your meals carefully. Eat lightly throughout the night shift and take a moderate breakfast to prevent hunger while sleeping and get uninterrupted sleep and digestive discomfort.
5. Keep a check on your fat intake: Keep out red meat and organ meat as they are high in saturated fat content. Instead opt for egg white, lean meat pieces or fish in your non-veg meal option. But, it should not be fried.
6. Prefer buttermilk to aerated drink because it is a healthier and cooler option.
7. Avoid heavy meals after midnight because they make you feel drowsy.
8. Also avoid fatty, spicy and high fat foods during overnight for the same reason.
9. Relax during meals and allow time for digestion.
10. Avoid caffeine and alcohol as they affect the rate of digestion.
11. Limit alcohol intake to one or two pegs once or twice a week
Apart from the above diet tips, follow these tips and techniques.
1. Always change shifts ahead and not backward. Rotate from mornings to afternoon to night and not in the reverse manner. It helps your body to cope up with the shift pattern.
2. Have a good sleep in the day by setting up proper condition for sleep. Darken your room and put your mobile on a silent mode for an undisturbed sleep. Also, tell your friends and family how important is that few hours of sleep for you.
3. Avoid excessive use of antacids, tranquilizers and sleeping pills.
4. Learn relaxation techniques that help in healthy sleep.
Shelly's World
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Night Shift Survival Hints
Introduction: It often seems that some staff are "permanent night people" who
always function well; that some are "day people" who are known to "face-plant" on
the desk and function poorly at night; and that some rotate satisfactorily but
markedly prefer one particular shift.
Advantages of night shifts:
Differential pay (where available).
More "interesting" clientele (perhaps).
Pace of shift may be preferable.
Simpler and more personal bureaucracy.
Close-knit working relationships.
High level of self-reliance, cross-training, even increased autonomy among
experienced and successful staff.
Counter-commute traffic and parking.
Disadvantages of night shifts:
Career-Stall as invisibility to daytime administrators and power-brokers increases.
If you are highly effective and actually like nights, you may rise to your highest
level there and stay forever as you become so essential to avoid "daytime" administrative
problems like finding someone who could be forced to take your position!
Loss of Inner Calendrical Rhythm, as years of nights and weekends (unlike the rest
of the world) erase your sense of day, date, and lifestyle, or ultimately the ability
to function happily in a daytime world in the manner of the old phrase "I've been
upside-down so long ---it seems like right-side up to me!"
Tips:
Sleep well and eat well before the shift. ---Who knows when or if the chance will come again?
Two Words: Digital Watch! Your key to accurate charting of day, date, time (24 hour International time), and personal orientation.
How can you check orientation after loss of consciousness without looking up the answers?
Allow end-of-the-day decompression time before sleeping after work. "Day-time people" relax after work.
Eat or drink something warm during that chilly lowest ebb of circadian hormonal change.
Can't stay awake; no matter what? Excuse yourself for a minute, go outside or into the hallway, and SPRINT! for 100 yards.
---You'll be wide-awake!
Rotate shifts in a forward fashion. (Days -to-> Evenings -to-> Nights -to-> Days) if rotate you must.
Whether you nap right after work or marathon through your first off day, try to get on your family's cycle as soon as possible. I
t will feel more natural and help preserve your relationships with your family.
Live on your day shift income; don't rely on night shift differential pay to make ends meet. Plan your budget upon your basic income
in case of unexpected changes or disability. Use your differential income for specific short-term purposes: e.g., debt reduction, extra investment,
vacation funds. It is too easy to become dependent on extra money as essential for house payments, schools, etc.; ---you may never be able to go off nights!
Use mornings for business. ---While you still have your wits about you and businesses are at their freshest level of service.
When planning chores, watch out for the "day world's" lunchtime-and-early-afternoon slowdown. Or the early leaving of staff decreases
efficiency in the afternoons if you're trying to get things done before work.
When relaxing before naps: avoid time-sucking activities. Choose things that you can put down when the time comes to go to sleep.
Don't get drawn into the black hole. [N.B. from the Editor: Web-Site management can be particularly bothersome.]
Have sleep-preparation rituals that promote good sleep hygiene. Regularity of preparations, even the same go-to-sleep music,
will flip your mindswitch to "I'm going to sleep now ."
If it takes a sleep-mask, black-out curtains, ear-plugs or "white noise machine", or other sleep aid, even silencing the telephone
ringer to ensure daytime sleep, ---do it and don't feel silly. You're entitled to the best sleep that you can get!
Avoid using intoxicants or sleeping pills to get to sleep except in the most unusual circumstances: the sleep architecture is altered
thus sleep is less restful and you may be hung over with poor performance at work. ---Habit-forming, too!
Avoid excessive reliance upon caffeine. It may get you past the occasional slump o.k., but it's addicting, disrupts even your own semblance of
circadian rhythm, and is diuretic! If possible, take a break, change activities, exercise, get fresh air, find a task where your attentiveness is really needed.
Don't forget that your family is for whom you do it. Don't lose your connection with family life. Don't put career, the job,
colleagues, before your family's needs. Don't lose your spouse/significant other.
Show up, unexpectedly, at your spouse's work with flowers and go out to a special lunch when you can. Let your spouse feel
envied by coworkers and appreciative of the ways you can be available during hours that conventional workers aren't.
Make time for regular exercise (especially if you and your partner are on opposite shifts). It's easy, when lifestyle consists of long night shifts and
revolves around essential functions of work, sleep, and eating, to omit keeping the body in tune.
Meet teachers, and help with school field trips, or contribute teachers' aide time.
If you seek career-advancement and consistently work nights, you will have to find useful ways to overcome the "invisibility"
of not being frequently seen by administrators and committees. ---Tasks often tried include coordinating night scheduling, orientation and
inservices presented, liaison with EMS, projects, etc.
People will say "Good Night" to you in the morning as you leave. Insist upon saying "Good Morning" as you can deal with
astrophysical facts and maintain a good sense of personal balance.
"Twelve-Hour" shifts are now widely prevalent. Some hospitals only hire for 12s. Seemingly, this is a benefit --more "free" time,
or time for another job. However, remember that unions fought for years to achieve the "eight-hour day". Twelve-hour
shifts are often thirteen or fourteen if there is overtime or other delays. Factor in your commute time, and household chores, and
there is little time to recover your "sleep debt" or to be a "human being" to your family. Extended spells working more than one
job will sap your strength, your personality during working hours, and your joie de vivre!
If you are the Charge Nurse on your night shifts, be aware of how your colleagues pace themselves, or when they "hit the wall"
physically and emotionally. Try to ensure their breaks at appropriate points before this happens. You may be under pressure
to downsize staff during "slack periods"; avoid this on those nights when "there is no let-up." You may also find that you
are overburdened with admitted patients who have nowhere to go due to staffing by actual census upstairs.
Grocery-shopping at off-peak hours. Isn't this self-explanatory and an obvious benefit?
always function well; that some are "day people" who are known to "face-plant" on
the desk and function poorly at night; and that some rotate satisfactorily but
markedly prefer one particular shift.
Advantages of night shifts:
Differential pay (where available).
More "interesting" clientele (perhaps).
Pace of shift may be preferable.
Simpler and more personal bureaucracy.
Close-knit working relationships.
High level of self-reliance, cross-training, even increased autonomy among
experienced and successful staff.
Counter-commute traffic and parking.
Disadvantages of night shifts:
Career-Stall as invisibility to daytime administrators and power-brokers increases.
If you are highly effective and actually like nights, you may rise to your highest
level there and stay forever as you become so essential to avoid "daytime" administrative
problems like finding someone who could be forced to take your position!
Loss of Inner Calendrical Rhythm, as years of nights and weekends (unlike the rest
of the world) erase your sense of day, date, and lifestyle, or ultimately the ability
to function happily in a daytime world in the manner of the old phrase "I've been
upside-down so long ---it seems like right-side up to me!"
Tips:
Sleep well and eat well before the shift. ---Who knows when or if the chance will come again?
Two Words: Digital Watch! Your key to accurate charting of day, date, time (24 hour International time), and personal orientation.
How can you check orientation after loss of consciousness without looking up the answers?
Allow end-of-the-day decompression time before sleeping after work. "Day-time people" relax after work.
Eat or drink something warm during that chilly lowest ebb of circadian hormonal change.
Can't stay awake; no matter what? Excuse yourself for a minute, go outside or into the hallway, and SPRINT! for 100 yards.
---You'll be wide-awake!
Rotate shifts in a forward fashion. (Days -to-> Evenings -to-> Nights -to-> Days) if rotate you must.
Whether you nap right after work or marathon through your first off day, try to get on your family's cycle as soon as possible. I
t will feel more natural and help preserve your relationships with your family.
Live on your day shift income; don't rely on night shift differential pay to make ends meet. Plan your budget upon your basic income
in case of unexpected changes or disability. Use your differential income for specific short-term purposes: e.g., debt reduction, extra investment,
vacation funds. It is too easy to become dependent on extra money as essential for house payments, schools, etc.; ---you may never be able to go off nights!
Use mornings for business. ---While you still have your wits about you and businesses are at their freshest level of service.
When planning chores, watch out for the "day world's" lunchtime-and-early-afternoon slowdown. Or the early leaving of staff decreases
efficiency in the afternoons if you're trying to get things done before work.
When relaxing before naps: avoid time-sucking activities. Choose things that you can put down when the time comes to go to sleep.
Don't get drawn into the black hole. [N.B. from the Editor: Web-Site management can be particularly bothersome.]
Have sleep-preparation rituals that promote good sleep hygiene. Regularity of preparations, even the same go-to-sleep music,
will flip your mindswitch to "I'm going to sleep now ."
If it takes a sleep-mask, black-out curtains, ear-plugs or "white noise machine", or other sleep aid, even silencing the telephone
ringer to ensure daytime sleep, ---do it and don't feel silly. You're entitled to the best sleep that you can get!
Avoid using intoxicants or sleeping pills to get to sleep except in the most unusual circumstances: the sleep architecture is altered
thus sleep is less restful and you may be hung over with poor performance at work. ---Habit-forming, too!
Avoid excessive reliance upon caffeine. It may get you past the occasional slump o.k., but it's addicting, disrupts even your own semblance of
circadian rhythm, and is diuretic! If possible, take a break, change activities, exercise, get fresh air, find a task where your attentiveness is really needed.
Don't forget that your family is for whom you do it. Don't lose your connection with family life. Don't put career, the job,
colleagues, before your family's needs. Don't lose your spouse/significant other.
Show up, unexpectedly, at your spouse's work with flowers and go out to a special lunch when you can. Let your spouse feel
envied by coworkers and appreciative of the ways you can be available during hours that conventional workers aren't.
Make time for regular exercise (especially if you and your partner are on opposite shifts). It's easy, when lifestyle consists of long night shifts and
revolves around essential functions of work, sleep, and eating, to omit keeping the body in tune.
Meet teachers, and help with school field trips, or contribute teachers' aide time.
If you seek career-advancement and consistently work nights, you will have to find useful ways to overcome the "invisibility"
of not being frequently seen by administrators and committees. ---Tasks often tried include coordinating night scheduling, orientation and
inservices presented, liaison with EMS, projects, etc.
People will say "Good Night" to you in the morning as you leave. Insist upon saying "Good Morning" as you can deal with
astrophysical facts and maintain a good sense of personal balance.
"Twelve-Hour" shifts are now widely prevalent. Some hospitals only hire for 12s. Seemingly, this is a benefit --more "free" time,
or time for another job. However, remember that unions fought for years to achieve the "eight-hour day". Twelve-hour
shifts are often thirteen or fourteen if there is overtime or other delays. Factor in your commute time, and household chores, and
there is little time to recover your "sleep debt" or to be a "human being" to your family. Extended spells working more than one
job will sap your strength, your personality during working hours, and your joie de vivre!
If you are the Charge Nurse on your night shifts, be aware of how your colleagues pace themselves, or when they "hit the wall"
physically and emotionally. Try to ensure their breaks at appropriate points before this happens. You may be under pressure
to downsize staff during "slack periods"; avoid this on those nights when "there is no let-up." You may also find that you
are overburdened with admitted patients who have nowhere to go due to staffing by actual census upstairs.
Grocery-shopping at off-peak hours. Isn't this self-explanatory and an obvious benefit?
10 Tips to Maintain Health and Beauty
Beauty, health, and nutrition are all integrated. If you eat a balanced diet you will be able to maintain your physique and glowing beauty externally and good health internally. A balanced diet is one that provides all the nutrients you need, the right amount of proteins, carbohydrates, and fat.
To achieve goals you need to ensure a good balance in your diet, introduce variety into your meals, and practice moderation. The basis of nutrition lies in your height, weight, dimensions, and your daily energy needs. Once you know this you can compute what your daily calorific needs are and set goals for weight maintenance, gain, or loss. By regulating your diet you can be active as well as happy.
You must:
1. Eat sensibly. Include a variety of foods in your diet such that the 40 nutrients that are required by your body are present. Make use of a food pyramid and calorie chart to prepare tasty and nutritious meals. Follow the “Dietary Guidelines for Americans” issued each year.
2. Eat plenty of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. They will supply you with essential vitamins, minerals, and protection from several diseases.
3. Maintain your weight at a healthy level. Successful weight management is one of the golden keys to good health. By doing is you will lower considerably the risk of many diseases like hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, and osteoporosis.
4. Learn self control, eat moderate portions. The secret lies in eating everything but in small portions. Don’t give way to gluttony or greed.
5. Make a time-table for your meals and how many calories will be in each meal. Never fast, starve yourself, or skip a meal. Eat when your body demands sustenance but not huge quantities.
6. Practice moderation. Good health does not lie in eliminating carbohydrates or fats. Include all your favorite foods but balance them with the rest of your diet. If you indulge your taste buds by eating pizza one day, then try and do so at lunch time, never eat pizza late at night. Ask for low fat cheese and healthy toppings. Eat just enough to satisfy your craving not all 12 slices. Get a few friends to share you sin. The days you indulge, eat sensibly the rest of the day—salads and fruits will help you make up for the binge.
7. Be sure your meals each day include all the food groups.
8. Plan to exercise every day. Either walk or take up aerobics, dancercise, or join a gym. Exercise will not just burn calories but put a glow into your skin, tone your muscles, and strengthen your bones. Exercise also removes accumulated toxins from your body.
9. Maintain a dairy in which you record your goals, and what you eat each day. Review your week objectively and create a table that shows at a glance what you did right and what you did wrong. This will help keep you on the right track.
10. Celebrate each victory. Give yourself a present or take yourself out every time you achieve a goal.
By eating healthy, one can live a complete and rounded life without diseases, reduce stress greatly, look and feel great, be happy from within and without, age well, produce healthy progeny, and live life to the fullest
To achieve goals you need to ensure a good balance in your diet, introduce variety into your meals, and practice moderation. The basis of nutrition lies in your height, weight, dimensions, and your daily energy needs. Once you know this you can compute what your daily calorific needs are and set goals for weight maintenance, gain, or loss. By regulating your diet you can be active as well as happy.
You must:
1. Eat sensibly. Include a variety of foods in your diet such that the 40 nutrients that are required by your body are present. Make use of a food pyramid and calorie chart to prepare tasty and nutritious meals. Follow the “Dietary Guidelines for Americans” issued each year.
2. Eat plenty of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. They will supply you with essential vitamins, minerals, and protection from several diseases.
3. Maintain your weight at a healthy level. Successful weight management is one of the golden keys to good health. By doing is you will lower considerably the risk of many diseases like hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, and osteoporosis.
4. Learn self control, eat moderate portions. The secret lies in eating everything but in small portions. Don’t give way to gluttony or greed.
5. Make a time-table for your meals and how many calories will be in each meal. Never fast, starve yourself, or skip a meal. Eat when your body demands sustenance but not huge quantities.
6. Practice moderation. Good health does not lie in eliminating carbohydrates or fats. Include all your favorite foods but balance them with the rest of your diet. If you indulge your taste buds by eating pizza one day, then try and do so at lunch time, never eat pizza late at night. Ask for low fat cheese and healthy toppings. Eat just enough to satisfy your craving not all 12 slices. Get a few friends to share you sin. The days you indulge, eat sensibly the rest of the day—salads and fruits will help you make up for the binge.
7. Be sure your meals each day include all the food groups.
8. Plan to exercise every day. Either walk or take up aerobics, dancercise, or join a gym. Exercise will not just burn calories but put a glow into your skin, tone your muscles, and strengthen your bones. Exercise also removes accumulated toxins from your body.
9. Maintain a dairy in which you record your goals, and what you eat each day. Review your week objectively and create a table that shows at a glance what you did right and what you did wrong. This will help keep you on the right track.
10. Celebrate each victory. Give yourself a present or take yourself out every time you achieve a goal.
By eating healthy, one can live a complete and rounded life without diseases, reduce stress greatly, look and feel great, be happy from within and without, age well, produce healthy progeny, and live life to the fullest
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