![]() ![]() Patient Safety Support Worker Trainee Programme. ![]() Nursing, Midwifery, and Healthcare Assistants.Healthcare Support Worker Development Programme.Allied Health Professionals, Healthcare Scientists & Social Workers.If you do sleep, have a nap after your shift and make sure you set an alarm! Try to get yourself up around midday and do some small tasks like laundry or sending an email for a sense of achievement. Try and stay awake until that evening, then have an early night – you will sleep so much better! Make sure you come home and relax, maybe treat yourself again like at the start of the stint go for a nice walk, take yourself out for breakfast or go to the spa. There are several schools of thought on this one, but my advice is: don’t do it. Readjust Your Body Clock at the End!Īt the end of your stint of nights, the temptation will be so strong to come home and collapse into bed. Source: Caffeine for the Sustainment of Mental Task Performance: Formulations for Military Operations. If you are unsure, go off a half-life of 5 hours, and stop all caffeinated drinks 5 hours before your shift ends, so you can get a good sleep when you get home! I would advise you to know your own susceptibility to caffeine well and go off that for planning your last caffeinated drink! The mean half-life of caffeine is 5 hours, with a range of 1.5 hours to 9.5 hours. Make sure you keep your water bottle with you throughout the shift and keep sipping away at it! This is sound advice for all shifts, but particularly at night when it is less instinctive to drink. Trust me, you don’t want to be woken after a 3-hour sleep by a rumbling stomach! 8. ![]() Ok so your shift is over, you survived!! But there is one final hurdle make sure you eat some brekkie!ĭubbed the most important meal of the day for a reason, having some breakfast before you fall into bed for a snooze will allow you to sleep better and for longer. They found that 84% of NHS staff do not have access to hot food during a night shift and they wanted this to change.Īlthough changes are happening and some hospitals have pledged to provide 24/7 hot food for staff, a lot of hospitals still do not have 24/7 provision. ![]() In 2021 Neely Mozawala founded “No Hungry Staff”, a campaign “to make the 24/7 provision of hot, affordable and nutritious food a reality for NHS staff.” I recommend cereal bars, plain biscuits and bananas, but again pick your poison! Make sure you are well-stocked on nutritious snacks for the shift ahead. Bring Snacks.įirstly (despite amazing campaigners) the NHS is pretty bad for the provision of food at night, and it may be difficult or even impossible to get some food in the hospital. I also usually have a big lunch to ensure I am well-fed before my shift, just in case I don’t feel like eating during the shift. This will give you the energy to keep going when it hits the dreaded 2 am slump. Make sure you have a good dinner with lots of complex carbohydrates before you head into your night shift. Trust me, I have been there.Īdditionally, if you are a light sleeper, think about investing in some earplugs and an eye mask for extra protection from the day! 5. There is nothing worse than trying to sleep during the day, or having your lie in, and being woken by the bright sunlight piercing through some thin curtains. Whoever invented blackout curtains must have worked night shift because they are a game changer. Invest in Some Good-quality Blackout Curtains.īlack-out curtains are a godsend. This is all part of the cunning plan to trick your body clock. So picture the scene: you have stayed up late, binge-watching Emily in Paris season 3 (Insert your own muse here) and you go to bed later for goodness sake, silence your alarm and let yourself lie in! Silence All Alarms The Morning of the Night Shift. Well now is the time to channel that inner kid and do it! Stay up later to start switching your body clock into night shift mode. Remember when you were a kid and you begged your parents to let you stay up late and watch movies and eat popcorn? If anything, you are doing something you enjoy and you will forget all about the shift ahead! 2. Trust me, do something that relaxes you whether that is going for a long run, lying on the sofa binging a Netflix series, or going out for coffee with friends, just give yourself a relaxing day. I know this is easier said than done when you are dreading the shift ahead, but try it. Sign Up 10 Tips to Transform You Into a Nightshift Ninja 1. Let Yourself Relax The Day Before. ![]()
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