Shift Work lifestyle design

[tyr_1]

Lot of smart guys here, especially in the area of hormones, so I’ll throw this out there:

For anyone who has to pull shift work, what are your compiled best practices for managing it in a healthy way? I specifically work 5 PM to 3 AM 4 days a week. How would you time eating on such a schedule? What can be done supplementally to counter some of the damage of late night/overnight shift work? Has testosterone made a difference for any of you guys sleep wise? Anything else you can think of to make this type of lifestyle as healthy as possible?

Also, any medical, supplement or nutritional interventions out there to counteract the impacted mood, impaired cognition, anxiety and such that can come from a night or more of impaired/shortened sleep?

Damn it would be nice to sleep an uninterrupted 8 hours straight through again...

 

[LTChris]

I used to work 6pm to 6am, 3-4 days a week. The most effective practice I found was to stay on that schedule even on my off days. It was the trying to flip-flop back and forth that caused the most issue. It was the only way to maintain a eating and supplement schedule. I realize this can be a issue if one has a family. I was not on TRT at that time so I can't speak to that. Modafinil or Adderral prescription could help with lack of sleep, but are not going to help you as far as health goes. Other then maintaining a constant night time life, unfortunately only advise I can offer that is guaranteed to help is to find a new job. Good luck.

 

[Vince]

When I worked the night shift, the only thing I could find that would help me sleep was meditation. I took a course on meditation and followed it completely. I actually slept great during that time. Too bad I stopped meditating when I got back to working days.

 

[Vince Carter]

When I was young and single and in the barracks I worked every sort of shift you can imagine, 7p-7a 3 days on 3 days off was pretty bad. Another that was bad was 0300-Noon, that one was pretty shitty. I was fortunate most instances that it was only a 60-90 day rotation but I was still on some shift that wasn't 7a-4p. Probably why I absolutely love working those hours NOW.
I never had Melatonin back then but would consider it now. I concur with keeping your schedule on the off days as best you can. Keep your bedroom very dark...black out curtains, etc..,

 

[tyr_1]

I used to work 6pm to 6am, 3-4 days a week. The most effective practice I found was to stay on that schedule even on my off days. It was the trying to flip-flop back and forth that caused the most issue. It was the only way to maintain a eating and supplement schedule. I realize this can be a issue if one has a family. I was not on TRT at that time so I can't speak to that. Modafinil or Adderral prescription could help with lack of sleep, but are not going to help you as far as health goes. Other then maintaining a constant night time life, unfortunately only advise I can offer that is guaranteed to help is to find a new job. Good luck.

Keeping the same schedule when I'm off is impossible for family reasons. As I'm now almost twenty years into a police career and just got promoted, I can't look for a new job at this point either. However, I think this later shift will only be a few month thing as I'll soon have a bunch of guys under me in seniority and can pick an earlier shift.

 

[tyr_1]

When I worked the night shift, the only thing I could find that would help me sleep was meditation. I took a course on meditation and followed it completely. I actually slept great during that time. Too bad I stopped meditating when I got back to working days.

Funny you say that Vince, I just returned to a mindfulness practice. I imagine it will help.