Working late night shifts can often make your meal times seem to be completely off schedule. If you work nights and sleep days you may find yourself eating breakfast when everyone else in your household is sitting down for dinner. This can also mean that your dinnertime may be very late at night and this could cause you to pack on extra weight. It may be best for your health to adjust the times of your meals to avoid those late-night calories.  Night shift workers are probably losing their good health faster . Long hours of work along with a hectic work schedule, have put an increasing number of young professionals burning the midnight oil at risk of major health disorders.

Problems With Night Shift Employees

The common problems that many night shift workers face are:

• Stress
• Disorders (various disorders like insomnia, fatigue)
• Obesity
• Gastrointestinal and digestive problems
• Cardiovascular diseases and blood pressure
• Behavioral and emotional disturbances

 

Unlike day workers, night shift workers face the additional challenge of staying awake when most people are asleep. There are several benefits to working during the night hours, such as differential pay and perhaps a slower work pace, but this doesn't take away the fact that working at night goes against the body's natural sleep cycle. As such, night workers may face problems in the workplace related to their irregular hours.   

Lower Productivity 

According to a BBC news article, research suggests that the body is naturally programmed to slow down during the evening; even the heartbeat will slow down at night. The hormone responsible for controlling our sleep cycles, melatonin, reaches its highest levels in the body during the middle of the night, inducing sleep and grogginess, according to Web MD. As a result, night workers may face a lower rate of productivity than day workers in response to natural signals from their bodies. 

Emotional Problems 

Most people in society operate on a day schedule. Thus, night shift workers must balance their daytime commitments, including family, friends and errands, while maintaining their night job. Sometimes, the night schedule may interfere with the worker's social life, causing them to lose support from friends and family. This can make night workers especially vulnerable to emotional stress, according to the BBC article. 

Health Problems 

In addition to emotional problems, night shift workers are also at a higher risk for physical health problems such as sleep disorders, fatigue, heart disease, high blood pressure and ulcers, according to the World Socialist Web Site. This may be from the strain of working against the body's natural clock, also compounded by emotional stress. As a result, night shift workers may find themselves taking more sick days than day shift workers.

Prepare Healthy Food Choices

 Step 1 

Pack healthy meals and snacks for your shifts. If necessary, prepare all your food in advance on your days off, then put it into portion-sized containers. Packing your own meals and snacks will help you to avoid vending machines and fast-food restaurants--a frequent source of high-calorie nutrition for shift workers.

Step 2

Drink healthy beverages. Pack a bottle with water or another noncaloric beverage to take with you for your shift. If you must drink tea or soda to stay awake, choose diet sodas or unsweetened tea. If coffee is your beverage of choice, choose an  artificial sweetener and go light on the cream. Alternate water with caffeinated beverages so that your body stays properly hydrated.

Step 3

Avoid vending machines. Most contain few healthy options; instead they're filled with high-calorie, high-fat snacks. Pack a few healthy snack items instead.