From a circadian perspective, pretty much everything about today's graveyard shift is wrong. It is well-known now for causing cancer, metabolic problems, and many other woes. The effects are so diverse! Researchers lately are beginning to elucidate circadian entropy as a potential root cause/solution.
If you'd like more history and context, check out:
Toward a Circadian Night Shift
We have always had night-duties. They are part of human history and success. In fact, we are born needing care throughout the day and night. Night watch is natural.
With that being the case, you may wonder: if night work is natural, why do we need to fix it? It turns out, the challenges for night shift workers are the same as for the rest of us, only more extreme.
Here are the three thing we could change now to correct the impacts of night work on circadian rhythms:
Circadian-effective Lights
Daytime Meals
Cooperative Team Building
Circadian Lights for Night Shift
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Brighter Days, Darker Nights to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.