As we celebrate Nurses’ Week, I express my gratitude to all those individuals who by choice or by necessity, lead lives of shift work. Over the years, I have had the privilege of working with clients who are shift workers and helping support their nutritional health. More recently, I notice that clients who in fact have “day schedules”, engage in shift work sleeping patterns. What do I mean by this? Specifically, because many of us are working from home now, and have access to our workspace virtually, clients indicate that they continue to check emails or work into the late night after ending their day shift. In turn, they sleep much later than usual, and their sleep quality is rated as poor. Moreover, when sleeping later, they tend to have difficulties regulating their hunger and fullness cues so may eat later at night, or skip breakfast in the morning.

According to a study published in 2020, nurses who engage in night shifts tend to eat the same amount in terms of calories per day, however, when they are working night shifts, they tend to eat most of their calories during the night. This is normally a time when our bodies require sleep, so we are fighting a natural stress response to stay awake, and compounding this through the added requirements to metabolize the food we eat. This means that our response to insulin and the proper storage of nutrients is hindered by the fact that we are awake at a time when our bodies need rest.

Another study shows that if sleep duration in children and adults is shorter than the required amounts for age and stage, this also affects the metabolic rate, nutritional cues, and eating habits during the day. In other words, sleeping as one should helps you achieve better nutritional health. This is often something I note when I speak to clients who are dealing with symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux: they tend to sleep poorly, therefore take more of the nutrients that cause the acid to build up, have difficulty with hunger and fullness cues, and this all worsens their sleep further as vicious cycles often do.

So, how do we improve our sleep, work within the barriers of our job requirements, life’s expectations, and the other personal stressors that impact our sleep? You may need to speak to your family doctor about your sleep quality and consider trying these natural therapies:

1. Try to eat regularly throughout the day so you are not going to bed hungry or having a larger meal at night.

2. Include a walk or gentle exercises before bed, and limit screen time or the checking of emails past a certain time in the evening, rather than having screen time right before bed (this is a tough one).

3. Limit caffeine and alcohol later in the day.

4. Ensure you have good bowel health by choosing higher fibre foods.

5. Consider mindfulness practice, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques to calm the mind before bed.

Even though circumstances arise in our lives that result in shift work, I hope you will take the time on some days of the week to take care of your sleep - because rest is the best recovery.