Successful navigation on the night shift

Working the night shift is usually a non-negotiable requirement for brand new nurses working in hospitals. Some nurses enjoy working the night shift and it has turn out to be their lifestyle. Working off shift has some benefits. You may schedule activities in the course of the day, avoid distracting administrative staff and visitors at night, escape institutional politics, and earn higher pay (Morelock, 2017). Nevertheless, research has shown that night shifts can have serious negative impacts on nurses’ physical, mental and psychosocial health and job performance (Books et al., 2020). Let’s take a have a look at how sleep deprivation can impact nurses and review helpful strategies for successfully navigating the night shift.

Understanding your internal clock

All of us need sleep, preferably seven or more hours each night. Two aspects which will influence natural sleep are chronotype and susceptibility to insomnia (Lee et al., 2015). Chronotype or chronobiology is your internal clock or circadian rhythm (Crooks, 2017) that determines how much sleep you wish and what time you sleep best. You could consider yourself a morning person, evening person, or night owl. Your chronotype is linked to your mental health, sleep patterns, personality traits and susceptibility to emphasize. A study conducted by Lee et al. (2015) found that individuals working the evening shift had the best problems with falling asleep. Additionally they found that nurses with a night chronotype were more at risk of insomnia. Insomnia susceptibility refers back to the degree to which stress may cause transient insomnia and ultimately chronic insomnia (Lee et al., 2015). People who find themselves highly at risk of insomnia turn out to be easily agitated and have poor stress-coping techniques.

Strategies to assist you survive the night shift

The night shift is each physically and emotionally taxing. Shift work is related to sleep disturbances, circadian rhythm disturbances, changes in physical and mental health, unregulated family life, complicated interpersonal relationships and reduced quality of nursing care (Lee et al., 2015). Working at night without getting enough sleep in the course of the day can impair job performance and negatively impact direct patient care. Fatigue changes judgment, making individuals at risk of mistakes.

Nurses use different approaches to managing night shifts. Some nurses implement an “overnight stay” program during which they adapt every aspect of their lives to work the night shift (Morelock, 2017). This approach works best if you happen to live in a big city with 24/7 services, but it surely’s difficult to sustain on a consistent basis. Essentially the most common approach is the “no sleep” program. On the primary day of your first night shift after your free time, stay awake all day after which work a 12-hour night shift. Unfortunately, cognitive functioning significantly deteriorates after just 17 hours of sleep deprivation (Morelock, 2017). Another choice is a “proxy nap,” where you are taking a 1-2 hour nap right before you begin your night shift.

Whatever approach you are taking, use these helpful strategies to enhance sleep hygiene when working the night shift (Crooks, 2017; Morelock, 2017):

• Give yourself permission to sleep in the course of the day.

• Prioritize sleep and permit enough time for no less than 7 hours of continuous rest.

• Develop a non-stimulating bedtime routine and keep on with it!

• Eat light meals a number of hours before bed.

• Drink caffeinated beverages early in the course of the night shift; avoid caffeine at the top of your shift.

• Limit brilliant light and screen time about an hour before bed; Blue wavelength light disrupts brain function and melatonin secretion.

• Clear your mind before bed.

  • Make a to-do list for the following day in order that your mind is just not busy remembering things.

  • Avoid fascinated with the things you think that you have to be doing whilst you sleep and as a substitute deal with the advantages of sleep.

  • Don’t fret about getting enough sleep as it could delay falling asleep.

• Block out normal daytime noise.

  • Wear earplugs.

  • Use white noise (fan, sound machine).

  • Put your phones on silent mode.

• Make your bedroom dark and funky.

  • Use window coverings to maintain things dark whilst you sleep.

  • The perfect temperature in a sleeping room is between 60 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit; a better temperature is not going to allow the body to chill down and can make it difficult to go to sleep.

• Try rest exercises before bed to assist you calm down, resembling progressive muscle rest.

  • Take a deep breath, tense the muscles in your feet and legs, after which release the stress as you exhale; move up the body to the thighs, belly and arms, ending with slow, deep breaths.

• Caution must be exercised when taking over-the-counter medications and prescription sleep medications as long-term use may result in physical and psychological dependence.

  • Melatonin is usually used as a sleep aid, but research has not shown that it promotes longer or higher quality sleep (Morelock, 2017).

• Use a light-weight machine to assist your body understand it’s time to get up.

Along with the strategies listed above to enhance sleep in the course of the night shift, there are other general health practices you can implement to be healthier overall (Crooks, 2017):

• Change your way of pondering; have a look at the night shift not as a burden, but as a chance.

  • Accept shift work as a requirement of your job.

  • Have a look at every thing from a broader perspective – the night shift is only one aspect of your job.

  • Find the humor in working the night shift – Things definitely occur at night that do not necessarily occur on the day shift.

  • Be positive!

• Care for yourself, do things that can assist you stay physically and emotionally healthy.

  • Exercise – helps take care of stress and improves sleep; try yoga, walk or swim.

  • Stay social – maintain relationships and spend time with family and friends.

  • Follow a healthy weight loss plan – eat foods wealthy in fiber and protein; avoid processed foods containing sugar.

• Practice gratitude.

  • Take time to think in regards to the positive points of your life.

• Moisturize to extend alertness.

The night shift is related to a special atmosphere of camaraderie and culture – it is nearly a rite of passage. While working when your body desires to sleep has physical and emotional effects, remember the strategies in this text to assist you successfully address shift work.

Books, C., Coody, L. C., Kauffman, R., & Abraham, S. (2020). Night shift work and its impact on nurses’ health. . 39 section 3, 122-127. https://doi.org/10.1097/HCM.0000000000000297

Crooks, L. (2017). Easy strategies to survive the night shift. . 40 section 2, 155-161. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NURSE.0000526889.33176.10

Lee, C., Chen, H., Tseng, M. M., Lee, H., and Huang, L. (2015). Relationships between sleep quality and chronotype, emotional disorders and susceptibility to insomnia in shift nurses. . 23 section 3, 225-235. https://doi.org/10.1097/jnr.0000000000000095

Morelock, S. G. (2017). Night Shift: Follow the evidence to survive and thrive. . 47(12), 46-51. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.nurse.0000526889.33176.10