Workplace support for shift and night workers
Find out how to support shift workers at your organisation. Read research, and get examples of promising workplace interventions that you can put into place.
Shift design
Many businesses including healthcare or utilities have to have 24-hour coverage. Removing shift and night work is not an option. We can think about ways to support our workers by better shift design. At times shift systems developed many decades ago are still used. Often stated as this is the way it has always done. When thinking about changing to a new shift system it is important that the employer and workers discuss the business needs. Worker engagement will help buy-in to any proposed changes.
Restructuring shift start and finish times
Firstly, think about the time of day when workers start or end their shift. While 6am starts are commonplace, does the organisation require that start time or is it through tradition. Would starting at a later time cause a problem? To actually start work at 6am, may mean a much earlier wake up time for those that need to travel to work.
Shift lengths
Shift length also varies with people working 8 hours or 12 hours per day. While an 8-hour shift will require three different sets of shift workers, a 12-hour shift only requires two sets of shift workers. Again, the length of shift is often down to tradition and what has gone before. This does not mean that future guidance might make different recommendations.
The research does tell us that having a minimum 11 hours break between shifts is essential. Recovery time is essential for all workers.
Rotating shifts forward
We can best support workers on rotating shifts by ensuring that the shifts rotate forward. What that means is having workers on a day shift, followed by an evening shift then a night shift before time off.
While there are a variety of ways of putting shift systems together, for example, two days, two evenings and two nights as an example.
When thinking about 12-hour shifts, one of the common approaches is two days followed by two nights followed by either two or four days off. Again, this ensures that the shifts are rolling forward and avoidance of more than three night shifts consecutively is avoided.
Managing the risks of driving home after night work
Driving home after night work is also a risk period. There have been several fatal accidents where individuals have had vehicle crashes when falling asleep at the wheel.
Talking to your workforce about the impact of tiredness on ability to drive is important. While there are different tools available to evaluate sleepiness risk, you will also need to consider how best to support your workers. For example, having somewhere to take a nap before going home.
How long should people continue to work shifts and nights?
We know that the risk of breast cancer increases as while a dose-response has been found with women working nights and breast cancer, it is impossible to state that women should not work nights.
As other cancers have been linked to night work, this is not only an issue for women. Making sure time is made available for cancer screening for those working nights is also important.
Informing workers of the health and fatigue impacts of shift and night work
Workers should also be given information on the health and fatigue impacts of shift and night work. This support should include information on how to set-up the best environment for sleep at home. Employers can also think about other health promotion activities to support workers. These include advice on physical activity and good nutrition. This also gives an opportunity to encourage individuals to attend health screening appointments.
Light at work
Exposure to bright light at night can cause melatonin production to be reduced and circadian rhythm disruption. When working there has to be a balance between having enough light to work safely and circadian disruption. While bright light at work will reduce sleepiness, at the same time it may be causing disruption. We need to be aware that the longer-term impact of circadian disruption is a health risk.
Using red light to reduce circadian disruption
The use of red light and blue light has also been trialled at this time. Red light is where the blue part of the light spectrum is removed. It is thought that using red light reduces the impact of light cues on the hypothalamus. As an example, when you put your phone onto night mode, the screen colour changes to a cream rather than white colour. Research is still ongoing in this area so recommendations have not been made.
Wearing dark glasses to reduce melatonin suppression
Finally, on the journey home from work, it has been suggested that wearing dark or sunglasses will reduce melatonin suppression at a time when people want to go home and sleep. Obviously, this is only when lighting and weather conditions make this safe. More research is needed.
Napping
Taking naps has been suggested as a means of recovering from sleep debt. This includes napping before shifts (a prophylactic nap) or at quiet times during a night shift (a recuperative nap).
Recuperative naps do require the space and time to allow sleep during a work shift and the cultural acceptance that this is ok.
Prophylactic naps could also be taken before starting the journey home for those that are feeling tired. Again, space is required for this to happen but would help workers to travel home safely.
Lifestyle interventions
People who work night shifts are more likely to be overweight. At this point, we do not know if this is due to calorie dense food, reduced physical activity or eating at the wrong time of day.
Organisations could think about ways of improving access to better quality food. While organisations may think this is beyond their remit, education about food and physical activity through workplace health promotion is a possibility.