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5 tips to stay healthy during a night shift

Working evenings, night shifts and rotating your work schedule can have a bad effect on your normal meal and exercise patterns. Research confirms that these disruptions can cause more digestive problems, fatigue and increase your risk of heart attack and stroke.  

Circadian rhythms influence hunger and digestion, disrupting a normal consistent eating pattern so here we give you 5 ways to support your health and wellbeing during your night shift:

  1. Maintain a healthy weight – If you’re trying to lose weight, place your carbohydrates on a quarter of the plate, protein such as meat, eggs, fish, peas, beans, lentils or vegetarian alternatives on another quarter, and salad or vegetables on the remaining half. Choosing smaller amounts of carbohydrates such as wholegrain, wholemeal, wholewheat pasta, rice, and bread provides a steady energy supply and a good source of fibre throughout the working day, regardless of the time you start and finish
  2. Moderate caffeine intake – Avoid drinking too much coffee or caffeine-filled drinks during your shift. Although caffeine can help to keep you alert, an excessive amount, especially towards the end of your shift, can make you jittery and rob you of some precious sleep when you need it most
  3. Stay hydrated – Stay awake and energized by making sure you’re drinking enough fluids during your shift. This also helps to ensure your bodily functions are working properly, since we rely heavily on water to keep our systems running
  4. Give yourself a boost – Take a vitamin D supplement. Guidelines recommend everyone should take five micrograms of vitamin D daily because we don’t get enough sunlight in the UK. If you’re doing night or shift work, the chances are you are getting even less sunlight. You need to focus on including vitamin D fortified foods, eating one to two servings of oily fish each week or taking a supplement
  5. Maintain a routine, stay consistent – Research has shown that it is important to stick as closely as possible to a normal day and night pattern of food intake. Try to eat your biggest meals at the beginning and end of the shift. Eat a small meal before you are due to finish work and go to sleep. This will help prevent disturbing your sleep later due to hunger. But avoid having a large heavy meal with more than 20 per cent of your daily calories within an hour or two of your main sleep time

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