Surviving Shiftwork: The Foundation
AI Disclosure · Human Written
Shift work can be absolutely brutal on one’s physical and mental health. Whether you do 8 hour or 12 hour rotations it all sucks. Through trial and error I’ve developed strategies and processes that have helped me to maintain a healthy weight, significantly reduced mental overhead and allowed me to still be a present fiancée and not a zombie; this post details the four things that make the biggest difference.
Routine is freedom
Something people in my life always ask is “don’t you find strict routine exhausting?” and the reaction is always the same when I respond with '“quite the opposite”. Ensuring the mundane is predictable and repeatable allows the majority of life-admin tasks to fall to muscle memory allowing you to focus on what truly matters i.e time in the garden, playing video games or meditating with the one you love.
This means having a repeatable repertoire of meals, bills and finances automated and any other aspect of your life on autopilot (where feasible). Even if you’re on a roster with rotating start times there is always a repeatable pattern which means a routine can always be created.
1. Sleep - quality sleep above all else
The average person will sleep 227,760 hours in their lifetime so why not ensure your sleep is as optimised as it can be so you’re practically backflipping out of bed. The science of sleep cycles is something I had never heard of before but it feels like a real life cheat code; you know those mornings you jump out of bed instantly feeling fresh and ready to crush it? Yeah that is a consistent and repeatable feeling, for me it used to be a lottery, not anymore. Give it a try for yourself, I even built a sleep calculator you can checkout in the sidebar (I wanted an excuse to do a Laravel Livewire project).
Side note:
Sleep with your phone in a different room and invest in a good alarm clock, read a book or wind down with meditative practice for 30mins instead of doom-scrolling like a NPC.
2. Right food at the right time
After spending my first night shifts of my career bloated and uncomfortable I figured out the right foods to eat at the right time pretty quick. It comes down to a couple of fairly simple principles that may sound a bit obvious but it plays a major part in my on-shift comfort so it deserves a mention.
Avoid fried foods, red meats and sugary treats.
Bolster ones gut health, consume lacto-fermented foods prior to nightshift e.g sauerkraut, kimchi etc
Probiotic foods as snacks or dessert items on nightshift e.g kefir (aids with digestion considerably)
Don’t ignore macros - I’ve had bouts where I have rapidly lost muscle and weight in general from not eating properly, while people will tell you shiftwork makes you gain weight, the opposite can happen just as easily.
3. Healthy Mind / High Performing Body
The power the mind has over the body is profound. You would be surprised how much of an impact maintaining good mental health has on ones physical health. Incorporating 10 minutes of non-sleep deep rest or guided meditation into your daily routine will have a measurable impact on your ability to perform well whilst on a shift rotation.
4. Time your caffeine
You might have read through everything thinking its mumbo-jumbo and a bit silly, but if there are two takeaways that sit above all else it is sleep (hence why its number 1) and timing your stimulants and caffeine intake in order to not affect sleep. Caffeine in a healthy adult has a half-life of up to 7 hours. Stronger stimulants will serve you well at the start of a shift with lighter ones such as Pu-erh tea (a Tim Ferris recommendation) to taper you off towards the end without impacting sleep quality.
