By Dr. Ryan Neely, PhD
Although the term is somewhat ambiguous, shift work refers to work schedules that operate outside normal work hours in order to maintain a 24-hour operation. Shift workers are the backbone of industries that operate 24/7, from hospitals and factories to transportation and logistics. These professionals perform in pressurized environments where the stakes are high, and performance is crucial. In return for keeping our critical infrastructure running, shift workers often experience disruptions in their sleep schedule. Workers with shifts that rotate outside of standard working hours or who regularly work night shifts have been well studied by sleep researchers, and have helped us learn a lot about circadian cycles and how to best compensate for atypical sleep patterns that can affect everyone from time to time.
At Elemind, we’re seeking to learn about all the factors that can get in the way of achieving restorative sleep, and using this knowledge to create solutions that help optimize rest and enhance performance. This blog explores the shift worker population, and how studying these individuals has helped us better understand the science behind sleep more generally, and how this knowledge can help us improve sleep efficiency.
The Shift Worker Universe in the U.S.
Overall, about 16% of U.S. wage and salary workers engage in non-standard schedules like evening, night, or rotating shifts. This equates to over 26 million people, highlighting the importance of understanding how non-standard sleep schedules can impact performance and well-being. Key industries with significant shift worker populations include:
- Healthcare: Around 27% of healthcare practitioners and 19% of support staff work night shifts, ensuring patient care is available 24/7.
- Manufacturing: Nearly 6% of workers in this sector manage production lines overnight.
- Transportation and Utilities: 6.3% of employees operate during night shifts to keep goods and infrastructure moving.
- Leisure and Hospitality: About 3% of this workforce ensures late-night service for customers.
These industries depend on high-performance professionals who can keep operations running smoothly - positively impacting lives, safety, and the economy. However, insufficient sleep can create challenges for these individuals both on and off the job.
The Effects of Shift Work on Sleep
Shift work creates sleep disturbances for two primary reasons. First, rotating schedules disturb circadian cycles that regulate sleep and wakefulness (among other things). This effect is similar to something many of us experience when we travel between time zones, and why experts recommend maintaining a consistent bed and wake time. Secondly, shift work often entails working during the night hours when the circadian system is promoting sleep, and sleeping during the day when the circadian system is promoting wakefulness. You may ask whether it’s possible to habituate to a nocturnal schedule over time - essentially aligning the body’s clock to being awake at night and sleeping during the day. Although there is certainly some adaptation that occurs, the circadian cycles are strongly regulated by daylight, and data suggests that day sleep is 1-4 hours shorter than night sleep (1). These sleep disturbances create similar outcomes among shift workers as other individuals who suffer sleep disturbances for different reasons: fatigue, lower cognitive and physical performance, and impacts on mental and physical health. Shift Work Syndrome is a clinically-recognized condition that was introduced to describe these challenges that shift workers face.
Minimizing the Impacts of Circadian Disruption
While most sleep doctors would probably advise avoiding any form of circadian disruption, this isn’t a reality for many people who we rely on to keep our world operational. Even outside of shift work, we all experience disruptions in our sleep schedule from time-to-time, whether it’s due to travel, work demands, or simply a really good TV show that you can’t stop watching. Under these circumstances, there are some scientifically-backed ways that we can minimize the impact of these disruptions on our sleep schedule.
One of the more interesting observations is that shift workers tend to experience less severe sleep disturbances when rotating shifts are done in a clockwise fashion (so that each successive shift is later than the previous one). This phenomenon is thought to be related to the fact that our circadian clock, in absence of external input, tends to gradually drift later over time (2). Other scheduling factors that can mitigate some of the negative impacts include not scheduling workers for many consecutive long shifts, reducing overtime, and allowing for days off at least every 7 days.
Many scheduling parameters, however, are not in an individual’s control. Some strategies can be undertaken at the individual level to ease the impacts of shift work. These include reducing stress, regular exercise, keeping a consistent sleep routine, and maintaining good social support (especially for regular night workers). These strategies are generally important for most people, but can give an extra edge for shift workers looking to maintain their health. They are also good strategies to consider for those of us who might find our sleep schedules disrupted by other factors beyond our control.
The Importance of Sleep Efficiency
Shift workers often have limited windows for rest.
One way to maximize the benefits of time in bed is to improve sleep efficiency - a parameter that we are particularly interested in at Elemind. Sleep efficiency refers to the amount of time spent actually asleep relative to the total time spent in bed. For shift workers whose sleep time may be restricted, maximizing sleep efficiency is one way to ensure that they make the most of every sleep session. Elemind can help in these instances by reducing the amount of time needed to fall asleep and fall back asleep, increasing the total amount of sleep time. While Elemind can’t give you more time for sleep overall, improving sleep efficiency offers a powerful way to make the most of bedtime.
Sleep Quality Under Challenging Conditions
Although many of us experience sleep schedule disruptions, it can be a way of life for shift workers. For these essential workers, adapting ergonomic rotations, maintaining healthy routines, and maximizing sleep efficiency can be useful approaches to maintain health and performance under suboptimal sleep conditions. Tools to improve sleep efficiency, whether that is Elemind or other sleep-promoting strategies can play a meaningful role in making the most of bedtime and help to mitigate some of the effects of circadian disruption.
References:
- Åkerstedt, T. and Wright Jr, K.P., 2009. Sleep loss and fatigue in shift work and shift work disorder. Sleep medicine clinics, 4(2), p.257.
- Czeisler CA, Duffy JF, Shanahan TL, Brown EN, Mitchell JF, Rimmer DW, et al. Stability, precision, and near-24-hour period of the human circadian pacemaker. Science 1999;284(5423): 2177–2181.]