this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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The key to night shift is consistency. I do night shift year round for nearly 9 years with this most recent job. I sleep 3pm to 10pm every work day and eat my meals at 11pm,3am and 10am.
I found over the years that the people who couldn't handle it were still trying to live a day life on night shift. They would try to get through with a short nap in the morning and another one just before work then try and fail to catch up on the weekend. They would eat breakfast lunch and dinner at home then have another meal at work so they were overeating and gaining weight or getting diabetes.
I’ve been doing night shifts the past 2.5 years, and I often do “live a day life” and yet I handle it just fine. I guess some people just need less sleep.
Though I do eat way more snacks than I used to and now you have me worried about diabetes (even though I’ve actually slowly lost weight since I started this job).
It doesn't hurt in the short term but in the last 23 years I have worked night shift in some form for 16 years. The living a day life will catch up to you eventually.
I have severe central sleep apnea so my sleep has never been normal and I find that it actually helps because I don't get any sort of jet lag and I can sleep anytime as long as I have my machine to keep me breathing.
Lots of studies show cancer and diabetes rates are higher in night shift workers but obviously there isn't a specific cause, just knowing that it is a higher likelihood means you should keep an eye out for the signs and try to prevent it by eating right when you can.