Lettuce Wrap – About Food and Stuff

By:  Lettuce Wrap 

Sleep deprivation is not a good thing.  What is really bad is when you are so tired that it hurts to keep your eyes open, but when you lie down, sleep doesn’t come.  Sad but true, that is what usually happens my first night off work when I try to get back a day shift life for my 2 or 3 days off.  This is known as “shift lag.”  That is where I am this morning.  Unfortunately, life doesn’t stop for sleep deprivation or a 3rd shifter. 

 I have to roll out of the bed this morning after less than 3 hours sleep last night to get up and get the kids up and off to school.  On top of that, it is raining heavily and has been for a couple of days which means the streets have lots of standing water on them.  Now, I have to drive quite a ways across town to get my kids to school half asleep driving in the rain.  This scares the very crap out of me every time I have to do it.  I worry that my reflexes won’t be fast enough if something happens and I need to react quickly.  Fortunately, God has watched over me and kept that from happening so far.  It is a frightening cycle I deal with on a weekly basis as do many 3rd shift workers. 

What’s more, it has been proven that missed or lost sleep can never be “made up.”  It is always a deficit.  I have worked 3rd shift for 8 years now.  Why do I work 3rd shift you may ask yourself? In my field on 3rd shift I do not have to deal with as many doctors, managers, or patients as I work at a local hospital as a radiologic technologist (x-ray tech).  Actually, I do as many patients on 3rd shift alone as day shift does with 5 techs. 

What if anything can a shift worker do to improve sleep quality? 

As a shift worker, I have read that the first step we need to take is to make sure we have no underlying health factors causing us to have poor quality sleep.  Some common sleep disorders that further complicate sleep include:  sleep apnea, nrcolepsy, and even depression.  Discuss your problem with your primary care and he/she may recommend you have a sleep study to make sure you have none of the above conditions.  

As a shift worker, it is imperative to find a dark, quiet, cool place to sleep during the daytime.  This tricks your brain into thinking it is night-time.  I have heavy shades that I pull down when I am sleeping during the day that mimic night-time darkness.  Also, when I get off work and the sun is beginning to rise, I put on my sunglasses to help my brain still think it is night-time.

Surprisingly, people can go without sleep for prolonged periods of time, but it will definitely cut into your productivity.  Long-term sleep deprivation injures your health.

Check out the link below to see just how detrimental third shift can be on a person….

http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/1031002656.html

The loss of sleep over the years causes some serious problems not only in your health but your coping mechanisms, family life and social life.  This certainly describes me, “They are more likely to be emotional and impulsive rather than patiently working things out with family members.”  Especially since I am in the “sandwich generation” which means I am taking care of my small children and my mother.  Talk about the pressures of life! Geez.

Some of the tips I am certainly going to implement to improve my life are:

• wearing dark wrap-around sunglasses on the drive home
• free up the entire day for sleeping
• wear earplugs or make sure your house is well sound-proofed
• getting bright light at work to keep me alert
• taking over-the-counter melatonin