I have been asked by a few people to share my methods/tips/coping strategies for training while doing night shifts and shift work in general...
The Background
Currently I am in a full time job where I work 12 hr shifts in an underground bunker. These are both day and night shifts. There are a lot of problems relating to shift work and lack of exposure to natural light. The first being sleeping and how that effects recovery for an athlete, but also other things like mood, motivation and willingness to train.
Sleep
There are 3 main functions of sleep. 1 is to repair the body. 2 is to process food and restoration/recovery of the nervous system and 3 is the cognitive function of learning and memory. Many now argue that sleep is mainly for the brain rather than the body.
"Sleep affects recovery, metabolism, hormonal balance, mood, and athletic performance. During sleep, the body secretes growth hormone, which aids in strength building and recovery from injury by stimulating the healing and growth of muscle and bone as well as the burning of fat. Sleep helps keep athletes mentally sharp, too, and is important for memory, reaction time, and hand-eye coordination as well as for learning and acquiring new skills."
So, all the good advice says get between 8 and 10 hours a night, which just aint gonna happen if your are on the night shift!
There is loads and LOADS of stuff on the internet about how bad not getting enough sleep is for you, disturbances in circadian rhythm (your body's natural rhythm) etc. etc. so I wont go into all that, I am just going to share my tips about getting through it, and especially getting through it while still trying to achieve your athletic goals.
Training
Unfortunately you are going to have to adapt your training, and this might mean having more easy or light training days than you would ideally like. However this is better than trying to train at a really high intensity when you are exhausted, resulting in becoming frustrated and angry because you have had a bad session, or worse becoming injured.
Day shifts
These are long and tiring. I normally try and do a light training session before work (horrendously early) or after work. Anything more than that and I would be wasted and unable to do much in the following days.
Night Shifts & The Tips
1. Don't try and skimp on sleep in the day in order to maximise your daylight hours. It is really frustrating to spend the best bits of the day asleep and miss all the sunshine, but you NEED the rest. It is said you need an hour of sleep for every 2 hours awake, therefore after a night shift you have a 'sleep debt' which needs to be repaid. Set an alarm if you need too, but try and wake up naturally so your body had banked the sleep it needs. I have found moderate to hard training sessions achievable on these days in the afternoon.
2. Go to bed as soon as you can after your shift. Try not get distracted by other jobs which need to be done, this will likely wake you up and you will find it hard to sleep.
3. Get some decent black-out curtains, blinds or sleep with an eye mask. Personally I have thick curtains AND use an eye mask which make it really easy to get back to sleep again.
4. If where you are sleeping is noisy, and living communally is I can assure you. You can try ear plugs (the type motorcyclists use, or if you don't like putting things in your ears (I don't) try ear defenders.
5. Put a sign on your door if you can, explaining 'Shift worker sleeping' or something similar. This should dissuade people knocking on your door trying to sell you something, or something else equally unhelpful.
6. Keep your room cool, this makes it easier to get to sleep.
7. Don't get stressed if you cant sleep. Try reading a book, listening to calming music. I like to write a list of what I need to do when I get up, then I can see my goals for the day and allocate my time appropriately.
8. If you are hungry, eat something. It can be hard to not over-eat while on the night shift, but if you are starving when trying to get to sleep, you wont. I sometimes have a small bowl of porridge or a handful of nuts. Walnuts, almonds, cheese, rice, cherry juice and chamomile tea are all know to help stimulate sleeping.
9. Don't under-estimate the power of the afternoon nap! Although you should try to nap for 90 or 45 minutes (or factors of, e.g. 3 hrs). This is one full, or half of a sleep cycle. This will stop you waking up in the 'deep sleep' part of the sleep cycle. That is when you wake up and feel totally awful!
10. After nights I find I am extremely irritable, my mood is very unstable and I can find myself being easily distracted. I am aware of this and that alone has helped to enable me to re-focus on what I need to get accomplished on that day. However I have also learned to LET GO, if I miss a session, it is not the end of the world! This is my hobby, I'm not a professional and it should be enjoyable.
Days off
These might be in the week rather than the weekend, and depending on your family situation this will dictate how much time you can give up to training, but generally I make the most of my days off and get in some big sessions with long periods of rest. I also try to do as much prep as possible for my days at work. Doing things like food prep, washing and getting bags of kit prepared so I don't have to waste time in what can be busy and very long days.
