People who do shift work and work outside standard hours as well as older people feel more excluded from society, according to a new U.K. study.

“Feeling part of society usually involves participating in certain activities such as sports, the arts, volunteering or social networking,” says lead author Dr. Matt Barnes in a release. “Our research shows that older people and those who work unusual hours face particular barriers to participating in such activities.”

Researchers say that  part of the problem is that social outlets aren’t always open when you are not at work, so the people that they would hang out with are not able to because they are working .

The study talks all about how people that don’t work regular hours tend to socialize less. Also, if your alternating shifts are on nights and weekends this number is even lower. People that work normal hour tend to spend 8 hours socializing and having  good time. People that work evenings tend to spend only 6 hours and 45 minutes doing this same thing. The weekend warriors are hurt the most, only enjoying around 5 hours a day.

I feel like this study is pretty accurate for my life. As a person that does not work regular hours, I feel like it does cut into my social life. As a college student I’m already pretty busy during the week and don’t have too much time to socialize as it is. Then I have to work on Saturdays from 5 pm- 5am and that takes a lot of my free time that i have to see my friends. I mean I make time to see them and so that I’m not being antisocial, but working non regular hours really can make this hard.

For all of you shift workers that are looking for someone to hang out with during the day, the study gave me a good idea; the elderly. According to the study, “over one million older people report poor social relations and social exclusion because they’ve retired, lost a partner or are ill.” The study also talks about how elderly people spend over ten hours a day alone, so excluding the sick ones that cant socialize, this gives thousands of people just looking for friends and someone to talk to. And I don’t know about you, but I have heard some pretty crazy stories from so pretty cool old people.

The human body has its own natural clock. This is often referred to as your biological clock. This clock is what makes you awake during the day and want to sleep at night. Circadian Rhythms is the scientific term for this rhythmic cycle. Body temperature is a good example of this change your body naturally does. During the day your body temperature is high and peaks around the early evening, like about 7 o’clock. Your body temperature is the lowest when you are supposed to be asleep around 4 in the morning. Your body can tell where it should be in the cycle by environmental cues. The biggest one of these would be light. Your body wants to be awake when its light out and asleep when its dark out. People that work the graveyard shift flip this and sleep during the day and work all night. This can make it very hard to get adequate sleep because while you are trying to get some sleep, your body wants to be awake because it is light out. This can cause physical and mental exhaustion because the body doesn’t get a chance to refuel while you sleep the night away.

As a college student, this kills me. I will go from waking up at 8:30 am to go to class one day and then not even going to bed till 7 am the next. It makes it hard to have enough energy to make it through the day. Because my body wants to be awake during the day, I barely get any sleep on nights I have to work. It also makes it hard to work, especially at about 5 am. Around then I’m always ready to just go to bed, but you have to force yourself to stay up until you get home. Working night shifts a couple days a week really does throw off your “biological” clock.

To find all of this information and much more check it out in a Shiftwork Handbook

Fatigue
“■ Disturbance of circadian rhythms affect (these affects can result in an increased risk of accidents):
- Concentration
- Reaction time
- Motivation
- Memory
■ Shiftwork can lead to chronic fatigue and insomnia
■ Shiftwork can lead to disruption of sleep patterns”

Recommendations

When it comes to fatigue, it can be a dangerous thing, especially at the end of shifts. This means that you should schedule most of the more difficult and tedious work at the start of the shift when workers tend to have more energy. Another thing to help with this would be to take breaks more often for shorter time. Your better off taking three 10 minute breaks then one 30 minute break. Another thing is to not overwork yourself. You should never go more then 5 days in a row without having a day off. the body needs time to rest and recharge. While at work, make sure the workplace is very well lit. When in darkness, the body wants to sleep, just like at night, so you have to make sure to keep it lit up bright so that people can stay awake. Most of all though, its just going to take time for your body to adjust and be able to handle the effects of shift work.

Stress
“■ May result from lack of socializing with family and friends
■ Hard to plan for family responsibilities and take part in regular of-job activities
■ Rotation makes it hard to form routines
■ Leads to anxiety, high blood pressure and heart disease
■ Decreases job satisfaction and motivation”

Recommendations

Stress is a big problem with shift work. The constant changing of shifts can really take a toll on the body both physically and mentally. When the body is at rest, it is able to relax and you can be able to deal with stress a lot better. This is why stress is a big problem with night workers. To help get rid of it, try to keep your scheduling the same week in and week out. Your shift times may change, but if you know what days you work, you can do things like plan something fun to do in advance and not have to worry about having to work. Another thing would be to allow workers to switch shifts. It can really stress people out, trying to plan their life without knowing when they work next. Another thing is don’t bite off more then you can chew. Make sure you know what you are capable of getting done and don’t try to take on more then that. Also, if you take on too much, you will have to work overtime. This can just cause even more stress because not only are you stressed out that you have all this work to do, but you also have to deal with the fact that the more your at work, the lest time you have to rest up.

Digestive disorders
“■ Shift workers tend to have a poorer diet and reduced access to wholesome foods
■ Increased snacking
■ Increase in ulcers, indigestion, and heartburn
■ Frequent stomach aches
■ Constipation, diarrhea, loss of appetite”

Recommendations

The best way to take care of these digestive disorders is to eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly. Working out helps keep the body in shape and working correctly. It helps release bad toxins and it keeps your bowels moving regularly. Eating a healthy diet helps a lot to. If your eating a lot of fats and salt it can not provide your body with the nutrients it needs to work. To help this, bring food with you to work. Most workplaces don’t have good cafeterias so by bringing your own food, you can avoid eating the unhealthy vending machine food.

 

 

Last week, I gave some tips to help graveyard shift workers stay awake while they are at work. Now I have some more tips, but these are to help you sleep better when you aren’t working.

Tips are from webmd

1. “Try not to work a number of night shifts in a row. You may become increasingly more sleep-deprived over several nights on the job. You’re more likely to recover if you can limit night shifts and schedule days off in between.” This is very true. I used to work 4 nights on then have 3 off. This was terrible because by the time my body readjusted to one sleep cycle, it would have to go back to a completely opposite one.
2. “Avoid frequently rotating shifts. If you can’t, it’s easier to adjust to a schedule that rotates from day shift to evening to night rather than the reverse order.” By doing this, your body is not going through such and abrupt change. This way you body can ease into staying up all night.
3. “Try to avoid long commutes that take time away from sleeping.” I have found that this tip is not that big of a deal, as long as your job is within an hour of your house. Like I talked about in my last list, the thing that I think works best is that decompression time before you go to bed. This commute would just make that time so when you got home you would be ready for bed.
4. “Keep your workplace brightly lighted to promote alertness. If you’re working the night shift, expose yourself to bright light, such as that from special light boxes, lamps, and visors designed for people with circadian-related sleep problems.”I have found that this tip is very useful. By working in a place that’s well lit, the body is somewhat thrown off and it makes it think that it’s still light out.
5. “Limit caffeine. Drinking a cup of coffee at the beginning of your shift will help promote alertness. But don’t consume caffeine later in the shift or you may have trouble falling asleep when you get home.” I don’t like using caffeine at all. Because if you take it to late it hurts sleep like it says, but if you take it to early in your shift, you will crash when it wears off and be wanting to go to bed while your finishing up your shift.
6. “Avoid bright light on the way home from work, which will make it easier for you to fall asleep once you hit the pillow. Wear dark, wraparound sunglasses and a hat to shield yourself from sunlight. Don’t stop to run errands, tempting as that may be.” I found this tool to be useful. If your driving home and its light out, you body starts waking up and switching into daytime mode. By avoiding this bright light, your body can still be ready for you to go to sleep when you get off work.
7. “Stick to a regular sleep-wake schedule as much as you can.” This is very hard for college student that work the night shift. This is because you have a requirement to stay awake during the day and at night. You just got to get sleep when you can, even if it means having a very erratic sleep schedule.
8. “Ask your family to limit phone calls and visitors during your sleep hours.” This is useful. If there is a lot of daytime noise going on while you are trying to sleep, your body will react to those and start going into daytime, awake mode, instead of letting you get your sleep.
9. “Use blackout blinds or heavy curtains to block sunlight when you sleep during the day. ‘Sunlight is a potent stimulator of the circadian rhythm,’ Fleming says. ‘Even if your eyes are closed, the sunlight coming into the room tells your brain that it’s daytime. Yet your body is exhausted and you’re trying to sleep. That discrepancy … is not a healthy thing for the body to be exposed to.’” In my bedroom, my bed is right by my window. Because of this, I have to put my blanket over my window to keep my room nice and dark. The number one reason I wake up too early after a night shift is if I don’t put the blanket up and the sun come shining on my face around 8:30 in the morning.

 

TIPS:

• Sleep well and eat well before the shift.
• Two Words: Digital Watch!
• Allow end-of-the-day decompression time before sleeping after work.
• Eat or drink something warm during that chilly lowest ebb of circadian hormonal change.
• Can’t stay awake; no matter what? Excuse yourself for a minute, go outside or into the hallway, and SPRINT! for 100 yards.
• Rotate shifts in a forward fashion.
• Whether you nap right after work or marathon through your first off day, try to get on your family’s cycle as soon as possible.
• Live on your day shift income; don’t rely on night shift differential pay to make ends meet.
• Use mornings for business.
• When planning chores, watch out for the “day world’s” lunchtime-and-early-afternoon slowdown.
• When relaxing before naps: avoid time-sucking activities. Choose things that you can put down when the time comes to go to sleep.
• Have sleep-preparation rituals that promote good sleep hygiene
• If it takes a sleep-mask, black-out curtains, ear-plugs or “white noise machine”, or other sleep aid, even silencing the telephone
  ringer to ensure daytime sleep, —do it and don’t feel silly
• Avoid using intoxicants or sleeping pills to get to sleep except in the most unusual circumstances
• Avoid excessive reliance upon caffeine.
• Don’t forget that your family is for whom you do it. Don’t lose your connection with family life.
• Make time for regular exercise
• Meet teachers, and help with school field trips, or contribute teachers’ aide time.
• If you seek career-advancement and consistently work nights, you will have to find useful ways to overcome the “invisibility”
  of not being frequently seen by administrators and committees.
• People will say “Good Night” to you in the morning as you leave. Insist upon saying “Good Morning” as you can deal with
  astrophysical facts and maintain a good sense of personal balance.
• Grocery-shopping at off-peak hours

Being a graveyard shift worker, I have been trying out these tips I found for a couple weeks now. I have been trying out different ones to see which ones work the best. What I have came to find works best for me is to give yourself a little time to decompress after work. I have found out if you go right to sleep, your body tries to wake you up around when you normally wake up. I normally get up around 9 when I don’t work, so when I do, I try to do something after work so I don’t go to bed until around 7 or 8. This is because then my body is in its deepest sleep when my body is normally used to getting up, so it helps keep you asleep longer. When I go to bed at 5 when I get out of work, I tend to wake up by ten and not get the kind of sleep I need to recharge after a long night of work. The one I feel works the least is the second to last one. When I see my roommates in the mornings before I go to sleep, it doesn’t matter if they tell me good night or good morning.. If I’m up at that time, I’m so exhausted that they could greet me with a blow horn and I would still want to go to sleep.

—–Tips are from ENW and have more details into these

I just listened to a 30 min piece on working the graveyard shift on npr radio and the main idea that came out of it was that everyone needs sleep. People that work the graveyard shift tend to have many problems with sleep. A lot of people that work this shift, myself included, think that they don’t need that much sleep. This is untrue. Now, there is no set time that everyone needs to sleep, but that doesn’t mean that everyone doesn’t need it.

The biggest problem with working the night shift is that it throws off your ceradium rhythm. This is the body’s natural cycle of being up during the day and sleep at night. When working this night shift you stay awake at night and then when its time to go to bed your body is trying to keep you up no matter how tired you are. This can make it hard to sleep, or at least getting an adequate amount of sleep.

The night shift has become more popular since the recession hit in 2008. Nearly %15 percent of full time workers work the night or a rotated shift. Also, men are more likely to work the overnight shift then women and minorities are more likely to work it the caucasians.

There are some ways to minimize these problems but there is no way to eliminate them. The best way to minimize these are power naps. Power naps are better then regular naps because you don’t fall into the deeper stages of sleep in these 20 minute naps. When you fall into these deeper stages of sleep and wake up while in these deeper stages you wake up tired and groggy. Other ways to minimize this problem are using caffeine and getting up and walking around while working. Most employers and employees don’t take these things into account and allot time during their shift to do these though.

Morgantown News

This blog will keep me informed on what is new in Morgantown.

The DA

This blog will help me stay up to date with information of things going on at WVU

West Virginia

This blog will help me stay up to date with whats going on the state of WV

Crimespot

This blog gives up to day crime information for different areas all over the country. Can use it to find trends of crime in Morgantown

MSNBC

This blog will help me stay current with the news and help give me stories ideas relating to what is going on in the world.

CNN

This blog gives me up to the minute information on what is going on in the world and will keep me in the loop of what is going on in the world around me.

Sleep Disorder Center

This blog will help me look into the health problems associated with the lack of sleep that goes along with working the graveyard shift.

Medicinenet

Has some good articles on what the lack of sleep from working all night can do to your health.

Career Center

This blog has job information about graveyard shift jobs

Morgantown

This blog with give me some history of the area and keep me up to date on what is going on here in Morgantown.

Here at WVU I am a full-time student and I also work part-time at Sandwich University. Since I got to this school, everyone said that students that work part-time tend to get higher grades. They made it seem like it was some magic trick to college. From advisors to RA’s, everyone was all in on supporting this idea and making the underclassmen believe it too.

I never had a job my first 2 years here and my grades were actually better then. I can’t say that getting a job was the reason my grades got worse though. Its cause as you get farther along in your major, classes tend to get harder. I wish, in my senior year, I could be learning about basic math and general sciences that were all about equivalent to their high school counterparts that I had already taken.

Because of all this, I decided to take a look into this idea that a job equals better grades. I found this great article about The Impact of Student Employment and it talks about this subject. It uses a couple different studies that look into this idea. It talks about how it’s more on the type of person the student is more then the fact that they have a job. If you are a lazy person, if you have a job, it’s going to negatively affect your grades. Not because of the job as much as your lazy and now it just another reason to put off doing work.

College jobs can be time consuming, but their is no proof that it can help or hurt my grades. So WVU freshman advisors, stop telling all the kids to get part-time jobs and it will help your grades. Tell then the next four years are on you. You are in-charge of yourself now its up to you what kind of student you want to be.