{"id":22034,"date":"2025-02-12T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T10:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22034"},"modified":"2025-02-12T10:27:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T10:27:15","slug":"working-the-night-shift-heres-how-to-take-care-of-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22034","title":{"rendered":"Working the Night Shift? Here\u2019s How to Take Care of Yourself."},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<p id=\"article-summary\" class=\"css-79rysd e1wiw3jv0\">Researchers have linked shift work to a variety of health and sleep issues. Experts have ideas on how to prevent them.<\/p>\n<section class=\"meteredContent css-1r7ky0e\">\n<div class=\"css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn\" data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When Samantha Shaw took a new job as a research technician for a sleep-related study at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital in 2021, she was excited to work on a cause that felt personal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since high school, she said, she had trouble falling and staying asleep, so she jumped at the chance to work with experts in the field.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/rally.massgeneralbrigham.org\/study\/edsresearchstudy\" title rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">researchers were looking into<\/a> whether a medication could help with excessive daytime sleepiness in people who worked night shifts, often in transportation or construction, that started between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Shaw, 27, found the work enjoyable. She also became a shift worker herself \u2014 often clocking in between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., heading home in the early afternoon and then slinking into bed around 6 p.m. Despite her exhaustion, she\u2019d struggle to fall asleep, sometimes getting fewer than four or five hours before it was time to wake up. She began drinking up to six cups of coffee a day, developed frequent colds and had little time to make friends.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"Dropzone-1\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn\" data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Insomnia, poor sleep quality and short sleep duration <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/oem.bmj.com\/content\/oemed\/74\/2\/93.full.pdf\" title rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">are common<\/a> among the 11 million people in the United States who work night shifts, according to federal officials. And shift workers often struggle to follow healthy diets or maintain relationships with family and friends.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That can have serious long-term consequences for health, said Jeanne F. Duffy, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who co-led the study at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n<div class=\"css-1336jj\">\n<div class=\"css-121kum4\">\n<div class=\"css-171quhb\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"css-asuuk5\">\n<div class=\"css-7axq9l\" data-testid=\"optimistic-truncator-noscript\">\n<div data-testid=\"optimistic-truncator-noscript-message\" class=\"css-6yo1no\">\n<p class=\"css-3kpklk\">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3kpklk\">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1dv1kvn\" id=\"optimistic-truncator-a11y\">\n<hr \/>\n<p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/myaccount.nytimes.com\/auth\/login?response_type=cookie&amp;client_id=vi&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F02%2F12%2Fwell%2Fhealth-effects-of-night-shift-work.html&amp;asset=opttrunc\">log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F02%2F12%2Fwell%2Fhealth-effects-of-night-shift-work.html\">subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1g71tqy\">\n<div data-testid=\"optimistic-truncator-message\" class=\"css-6yo1no\">\n<p class=\"css-3kpklk\">Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3kpklk\">Already a subscriber?\u00a0<a data-testid=\"log-in-link\" class=\"css-z5ryv4\" href=\"https:\/\/myaccount.nytimes.com\/auth\/login?response_type=cookie&amp;client_id=vi&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F02%2F12%2Fwell%2Fhealth-effects-of-night-shift-work.html&amp;asset=opttrunc\">Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3kpklk\">Want all of The Times?\u00a0<a data-testid=\"subscribe-link\" class=\"css-z5ryv4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F02%2F12%2Fwell%2Fhealth-effects-of-night-shift-work.html\">Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers have linked shift work to a variety of health and sleep issues. Experts have ideas on how to prevent them.When Samantha Shaw took a new job as a research technician for a sleep-related study at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital in 2021, she was excited to work on a cause that felt personal.Since high school, she said, she had trouble falling and staying asleep, so she jumped at the chance to work with experts in the field.The researchers were looking into whether a medication could help with excessive daytime sleepiness in people who worked night shifts, often in transportation or construction, that started between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m.Ms. Shaw, 27, found the work enjoyable. She also became a shift worker herself \u2014 often clocking in between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., heading home in the early afternoon and then slinking into bed around 6 p.m. Despite her exhaustion, she\u2019d struggle to fall asleep, sometimes getting fewer than four or five hours before it was time to wake up. She began drinking up to six cups of coffee a day, developed frequent colds and had little time to make friends.Insomnia, poor sleep quality and short sleep duration are common among the 11 million people in the United States who work night shifts, according to federal officials. And shift workers often struggle to follow healthy diets or maintain relationships with family and friends.That can have serious long-term consequences for health, said Jeanne F. Duffy, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who co-led the study at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22036,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22034"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22037,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22034\/revisions\/22037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}