If you are an expert in sleep, nutrition, brain health, fitness or any element of wellness, please give advice and recommendations that can be applied everyone, including the millions of people for whom shiftwork is part of life. If you know an expert in these areas, or are talking to one, please ask them to provide advice and strategies that can be
used by everyone.
For people who work shift work or people who get up at 2:00 a.m. because their shift at the airport starts at 3:30 a.m. the following advice may be of limited or no value:
- Don’t have drink coffee after 2:00 p.m.
- Don’t eat after 7:00 p.m.
- Get up at 5:00 a.m. to be most productive with your day
What might be more helpful is:
- Consume your last caffeinated beverage 6 to 8 hours before going to bed (10 to 12 hours is even better) to avoid the caffeine disrupting your sleep.
- Eat your last meal no later than 2 hours before you go to bed. If you can have 3 to 4 hours after your last meal and when you go to bed that may be even better for your sleep and your brain health.
- Develop a system to ensure you are able to fit in self-care activities such as exercise, meditation and reading. That may vary depending on what shift you are working and those activities may be before work or after work.
“Get exposure to sunlight within the first 30 minutes of getting up to help regulate your hormones and your circadian rhythm.” may not be useful advice for people who live in the Artic and may not see the sun during the winter, or people who live in parts of the world where we do not see the sun until 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. during the fall and winter, or
people who work night shift and may not get up while the sun is still out in the winter. What might be more helpful would be to say, “Try to get some sun exposure in the first part of your day. If that is not possible then possibly look at investing in a light box, having some full spectrum lights in your home or provide some alternative strategies.
To say “meal replacement bars and shakes are crap.” Is not helpful for a person for whom sometimes that is the only option. What would be helpful is to provide information regarding what to look for in the contents and nutritional breakdown on the packages to find the ones that might be better
options.
“Turn off all your devices 3 hours before you go to bed to eliminate blue light disruptions of your sleep.” may not be useful for people who read on a tablet before going to bed to help them wind down, or people who use meditation apps on their phones to wind down or help fall asleep, or listen to relaxing music on their phone as a strategy to
decompress before bed. What might be more helpful would be to advise them of the reasons that blue light exposure may disrupt sleep and advise them to use the “Nighttime” dimming function on their devices, install apps such as f.lux on their computers, purchase blue light blocking glasses or other strategies.
Giving advice based on some mistaken belief that everyone works 9:00 to 5:00 dayshift and lives in Southern California is only helpful to people who do. For the rest of us it would be more helpful if you reframed the advice so it is easily applied regardless of our schedules and place of
residence.
What’s Important Now? Strive to understand the reasons behind the advice and the general principles that will allow you to apply the advice to your life. If you are or know an expert, ask them to teach principles and concepts we can all
apply.
