Study finds overtime linked to depression, anxiety

A researcher at the University of Bergen in Norway, Elisabeth Keppa, has found that overtime is associated with increased levels of mental stress, anxiety, and depression. Kleppa assessed a study of 1,300 men and women, who worked 41 to 100 hours per week and 9,000 workers who not more than 40 hours per week. Kleppa's study was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The Bloomberg wire service ran an article on this, Working Overtime Is Linked to Depression, Anxiety, Study Shows, noting that the effect was particularly notable among men working more than 100 hours per week who were found to be more likely to be doing heavy manual labor and to be working shiftwork. This is just one study, but it's a fairly substantial size.

Add this to the potential relationship strains that can arise due to the demands of a shiftwork schedule (see related today's related post) and shiftworkers and managers in 24/7 business should be particularly careful about scheduling much overtime, certainly on a prolonged basis.

The National Shiftwork Information Center encourages managers in 24/7 operations to assess their staffing needs and their scheduling practices to make sure shiftworkers are not working too much overtime on a regular basis.

Circadian rhythms drive your healthcare

If you've looked into it at all, you know that circadian rhythms drive your sleep. But did you also know that time of day is a factor in the effectiveness of some medicines. That's been known for sometime -- there's actually a term for this, "chronopharmacology", which is a very cool word to have in your vocabulary -- but researchers from many universities and institutions have found 60 pharmaceuticals whose effectiveness varies by time of day. For more on this, read When is the right time to take your pills.

What are the health effects of shiftwork? What to do while we still have no answer to this question

On the same day earlier this week I came across two posts on the internet, both from Toronto.


"People who perform shift work do not appear to face any additional risk of death from heart disease than people who work regular office hours, a recent study in the journal of Occupational Environmental Medicine shows. "

Source: Heart & Stroke Foundation (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

"Disruption of an individual's natural sleep-wake cycle has been determined to be a contributing factor in the development of organ disease. The findings of U of T researchers were recently published in the Journal of American Physiology."

Source: University of Toronto (Ontario, Canada)

So what's a shiftworker to do?

This isn't easy, and it's far from clear. Common sense suggests that for most people there is a possibility of health consequences of shiftwork. We have evolved over too long a period of time to sleep at night to have things change over the course of 100 years. Assuming there are consequences, we don't have a good idea yet of what that means for a typical shiftworker. Given economic realities, employers aren't going to return to working only day shifts, and workers aren't going to turn down the premium pay that often comes with shiftwork jobs.

So, in the absence of definitive scientific findings, taking reasonable precautions is the prudent approach. Getting proper sleep and exercise. Eating well and managing caffeine usage.

For employers, making sure your shift schedules are as good as possible (forward rotating, appropriate start times, etc), that your work environment promotes alertness, that you have plans in place to help fatigued workers, that you provide adequate shiftworker lifestyle training, etc. is all important.

Study findings confirm forward rotating shiftwork schedule has benefits

An article in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine confirms that forward-rotating schedules are preferable for rotating shiftworkers than schedules that rotate backwards (from night shift, to evening shift, to day shift). The journal article cites a study by Clare Bambra, a researcher in Department of Geography at Durham University in England. The study also found benefits to work-life balance in giving shiftworkers more individual control over their work schedules. While the latter may not always be possible in many operations, employers should take note that the benefits of a forward rotating schedule are pretty clearly established at this point.

Study finds chronic disruption can cause heart and kidney disease

University Health News today posted an article Chronic Sleep Disruption Can Cause Heart And Kidney Disease. The subject of the article is pretty self-explanatory, based on the title, and it discusses research conducted at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre of the Toronto General Hospital (Toronto, Ontario, Canada).

Dr. Michael Sole, Cardiologist and founding director of the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre and Professor of Medicine and Physiology at the University of Toronto suggests that shiftworkers working on a rotating schedule should try to maintain the same shift for a month at a time to reduce the circadian disruption.

Nightshift working nurses overworked

A February 28 article in The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) discusses challenges facing overworked nurses, "Overworked nurses can't handle strain of additional duties, union says."

The article cited one nurse who said,

"At times, she admitted, she longed to be back at the bedside, to help
those in pain or dying. But the thought quickly disappears after her mind
flashes back to the long hours and gruelling work."

The health effects of light at night

On February 22, US News and World Report posted an article discussing the effect of light exposure at night on health. In the article, Light at Night: How to Counter the Health Effects, reporter Debra Kotz speaks with neurology and lighting experts about the effects of lighting on circadian rhythms, sleep, and health.

Shiftwork health and safety: long-term health effects

In the long run, it is possible for a demanding work schedule to affect a person's health. However, studying health problems in workers is difficult. If possible, workers will change jobs if they think the work is making them ill. A shiftworker might change to a day job for that reason. This is called the “healthy worker” or the “survivor” effect. Workers who stay on the job are those who can “take it.” Because sick workers leave the job, it is much harder to show a relationship between job factors and poor health. Therefore, researchers have only fairly healthy shiftworkers to study.

With that in mind, it is not clear whether or not one's work schedule is the actual cause of health problems. But, workers who quit doing shiftwork often point to health problems as a major reason for quitting. Plus, a stressful schedule can combine with other factors to hurt a person's health.

If a person has other major stresses in life, such as a bad marriage or a loved one with a chronic illness, a demanding work schedule certainly won't help the situation. If a worker has poor health habits, such as using too much alcohol or tobacco, it will be more difficult to resist the stress of the work schedule. A demanding schedule also might aggravate an existing health problem.

Digestive Problems
Some research has suggested that shiftworkers have more upset stomachs, constipation, and stomach ulcers than day workers. Other research has not backed up this suggestion. But, there is always the problem of having only healthy workers to study. Digestive problems could be more common in shiftworkers because digestion follows a circadian rhythm.

Usually people eat at regular times during the day. They also eliminate waste at regular times during the day. Shiftwork can interfere with regular eating and digestive patterns by changing work and sleep times frequently. So, it is not surprising that this could lead to nausea and other stomach problems. However, digestive problems also could be caused by lack of nutritious food. For example, sometimes on night shift only junk food from vending machines is available.

Heart Disease
Heart problems also have been noted more often among shiftworkers than day workers. For example, Swedish researchers studied paper mill workers in a small town for several years. This study is especially meaningful, because the paper mill was the only employer in town. This made it difficult for the employees to stop working shifts.

Most of them had done shiftwork for most of their lives. Researchers found that the longer people worked shifts, the more likely they were to develop heart disease. However, the way in which the work schedule affects the heart is not at all clear. Work schedule stress might cause heart disease, but it is more likely a combination of stress, diet, smoking and drinking habits, other life stresses, and family history of heart disease.

It is difficult to say exactly how the work schedule fits in with all the other factors producing heart disease. Earlier we talked about several different work schedule features that could cause stress and fatigue. Right now we can only guess about which combination of those features has the most impact on a person's health. Constantly shifting from a day to a night schedule may be one of the stressful factors. But long work hours, high workloads, and irregular schedules also can play a role.

Source: Plain Language About Shiftwork (NIOSH)

Related posts:
* Night shift work raises cancer risks, or not

Shiftworker health and safety: short-term effects, part I

There are many positive aspects of shiftwork and our 24/7 society. Operating 24/7, shiftworkers make this world safer, more productive, and more convenient for everyone else. Employers often offer differential pay for shiftwork, and shiftworkers often have time off when the majority of workers are working.

Shiftwork schedules are also demanding and likely to produce stress and fatigue. Shiftwork can affect safety, health, or ability to do the job. Some of these things happen very soon after starting shiftwork. We talk about these under Immediate Effects. Health changes take a longer time to appear. We talk about health under Long-Term Health Effects.

Immediate Effects
Sleep
Soon after starting shiftwork, people notice changes in their sleep. Night workers usually get the least amount of sleep. Evening shift-workers get the most sleep, and day shiftworkers get a medium amount of sleep. Night workers are forced to sleep during the day, when their circadian rhythm makes them feel more awake. Day sleep is usually shorter than night sleep—sometimes two or three hours shorter. Day sleep also is lighter than night sleep.

Day sleepers often say they don't sleep as deeply as they do at night. Because their sleep is lighter, they are easily awakened by sounds. This makes sleeping difficult. Since there is more activity during the day, there are more sounds to wake up the sleeping shiftworker. Both permanent night workers and rotating shiftworkers sleep worse when working nights. However, rotating shiftworkers sleep the least of all.

Sleep loss makes it much easier to fall asleep at inappropriate times. This affects a worker's ability to perform safely and efficiently. Sleepiness can affect performance both on and off the job. Driving to and from work is a major concern. Sleepiness affects our ability to concentrate or pay attention, and driving requires us to pay attention at all times.

So, if a person is sleepy, it is easier to have an accident. Several jobs, such as operating dangerous machinery, also require us to pay attention at all times. So sleepiness can be risky in many different occupations. This risk is not simply a matter of falling completely asleep. After sleep loss, it is possible to have very brief periods of sleep that last only a few seconds.

Most people may not even realize these short sleeps are happening. During those few seconds of sleep, they are not paying attention at all. If something dangerous happens at those times, the worker or somebody else could get seriously hurt.

Circadian Rhythm, Performance, and Safety
The circadian rhythm is a major body rhythm with regular ups and downs in the 24-hour day. Many systems in the body are very active at certain times of day, and not active at all at other times of day. Usually the most activity happens in late afternoon or early evening. For example, the body's ability to produce energy from food (metabolism) is highest in the afternoon to evening. The least activity usually happens in the middle of the night when most people are asleep. This is one reason people feel most active and alert around 4 to 6 o'clock in the afternoon, and sleepiest at 4 to 6 o'clock in the morning.

There also are personal differences in circadian rhythms. Some people are morning types or “larks.” Morning people feel most active and alert early in the day. They usually go to bed early in the evening. Other people are evening types or “owls.”

Evening people feel most active in late afternoon or evening, and like to stay up late into the night. Fishermen who are out on the water before dawn usually are morning types. Musicians who perform in the evening usually are evening types. Most people, however, are somewhere in-between the strict morning and evening types.

The internal circadian rhythm affects how alert people feel. This affects their ability to perform. People perform best when alertness and internal body activity is high, and worst when alertness and activity are low. In the normal day-work, night-sleep situation, people work when the circadian rhythm is high and sleep when it is low.

On average, this schedule is best for performance, which means it also is best for safety. When workers perform poorly, they are more likely to make errors that could lead to accidents or injuries.

When working the night shift, a person is at work when his or her circadian rhythm is low and asleep when it is high. Such a schedule means that a person is trying to stay alert when the circadian rhythm is low.

On average, this is not the best time of day for performance. This low-point affects physical activity and the ability to concentrate. If a worker also has lost sleep, fatigue could combine with the circadian low-point to double the effect on one's ability to perform. Poor performance could affect both productivity and safety. Studies of errors and accidents at different times of day show an increased risk at night when the circadian rhythm is low and sleep has been lost.

Source: Plain Language About Shiftwork (NIOSH)

Continued in:
* Shiftworker health and safety: short-term effects, part II

Does working shiftwork make it harder not to gain weight, or to stick to a diet?

The National Weather Service operates 24/7, 365 days a year, covering weather developments across the country. If you live in areas affected by blizzards, droughts, hurricanes, tornados, floods, or other weather events, or if you fly a plane or sail a boat, I'm sure you appreciate that the National Weather Service is on the job. In the coming weeks, I'll be bringing you excerpts of interviews with National Weather Service employees, so you can hear, in their own words, their shiftwork tips.

Today, we're hearing about managing your weight. Here are some interview excerpts:

"In general, I have had to be more aware of keeping my weight down since I started working full time rotating shifts for NWS. I have a tendency to grab something sweet and fattening to eat, especially when I'm tired. One of the things I try to do while at work is limit my intake of cold drinks to one, diet or regular, per shift, and then drink water or fruit juice the rest of the shift. The more water I drink, the fuller I feel and less likely I'll be to snack on junk food. I also try to bring low fat snacks and meals with me to work.

"Also, I've joined a health club that is close to the office. Having the health club so close by gives me quick access to a work out before or after my shift, and I'm less likely to bail out because of a long travel time. If you don't have access to a health club or don't care to join one, you could try to plan some kind of physical activity with your spouse, your kids, or a friend. This way you can combine quality visit time and exercise. "

What do you think? Post your comments.

Ed

Source: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/women/faqshift.html#shifts_and_kids

Why managers in 24/7 need to pay attention to the special needs of shiftworkers

There are about 25 million shiftworkers in this country. They work in factories, hospitals, power plants, railroads, police and fire departments, mines, paper mills, and hundreds of other types of 24-hour operations.

But shiftworkers do more than work at night. They work out of sync with the human body's natural instinct for being awake during the day and sleeping at night. This creates increased health and safety risks for shiftworkers in addition to the health and safety issues faced by their day-working counterparts. To improve the health and safety of employees, employers must address a number of additional areas.

These fall into two categories: employee lifestyle training and corporate policies and practices.

Because of the disruption to their circadian rhythms, nightshift workers have a higher incidence of ulcers and other gastrointestinal disorders, more on-the-job and driving home accidents, lower productivity, and higher absenteeism and turnover--to name some of the most common "hidden" costs of operating around the clock. To reduce or eliminate these costs requires a comprehensive program that addresses the operational, physiological, and sociological factors.

Tired people don't find better ways to accomplish their tasks. They pay less attention to what they're doing and take longer to respond to mistakes.

In spite of the long years of schooling and training in many cases, shiftworkers and their managers are given no formal preparation on handling the special demands of working at night. There is no course on how to work long shifts or how to keep alert and effective. The fatigue that comes along with the job adversely affects attention, judgment, energy, morale, and motivation.

Compared to well-rested people, tired people move slower and work less efficiently. They don't find better ways to accomplish their tasks. They pay less attention to what they're doing and take longer to respond to mistakes. Response to alarms is slower, tools are dropped, and productivity suffers.

This is equally true for nuclear power plant engineers, pilots, manufacturing control room operators, air traffic controllers, police officers, and firefighters--anyone who works at night. In fact, even people who work 9-to-5 can benefit from increased alertness.

We'll have more to say on shiftwork and management practices.

Ed

For further reading:
* Best practices for managing a shiftwork operation
* Shiftworker lifestyle training: fatigue countermeasures, sleep strategies, and more
* Shiftwork training to improve alertness and safety on the night shift
* Shiftwork schedules: fixed or rotating
* Shiftwork schedules in the 24/7 world
*

More about sleep for shiftworkers

The Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas, USA) has a sleep week this week. While there is a lot of information about sleep out on the web, I'm somewhat partial to newspaper stories because they're written to have an impact while at the same time being written for the general public (so many of the journal articles are full of jargon and scientific terms that may make it harder for the average reader to understand the information.

You can read the first first installment The Z's factor "There's been an awakening in the medical community to how important good sleep is to our bodies" in today's issue.

Ed

Sleep: for shiftworkers, and everyone else, there's no substitute

Sleep is obviously a critically important topic for shiftworkers. But, it's equally important for the rest of the world too. That's why there's so much written about sleep -- how to get young children to sleep, the effects of teens' sleep on academic performance, the delights of an afternoon nap, or whatever. So, it's no wonder there's so much written about sleep.

The important thing to remember is that you need sleep. Everyone does. And most people need 7 or 8 hours of a sleep in a 24-hour period. While there are some people that can live on 4-5 hours of sleep, there are VERY few such people. Many who think they sleep that little actually add sleep at other times of the day, dozing during meetings and taking other intentional or unintentional naps.

And, you cannot train yourself to need less sleep.

You may get used to operating in an impaired state but your need for sleep remains the same. If you don't get the sleep you need you reduce your alertness, impairing your safety and your performance. There is also substantial evidence that you impair your learning ability, your cognitive abilities, and your longterm health.

And, beyond a very limited range you can never make up lost sleep. The person who holds the record for continuous wakefulness stayed awake more than 10 days. Afterwards, he slept for 14 hours. That's it. The other sleep lost was never recovered. So the learning and health impacts cannot be reversed. You've got to consistently get the sleep you need to perform your best in the short term and to maintain your health in the long term. It's that simple.

Over the weekend I read yet another article about sleep. It's nothing groundbreaking but it provides a very good overview. In Saturday's edition of The Cleveland Daily Banner (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) Dr. Rob Coombs wrote a short article on sleep that provides a good, basic overview of sleep -- the 4 sleep stages, the need for sleep, what makes us sleep, etc. You might want to check out Speaking on Sleep.

We've covered sleep and sleep tips many times on this blog, and I know we will continue to do so frequently. Some recent articles include:

• Shiftworker lifestyle training: fatigue countermeasures, sleep strategies, and more
• Handling long night shifts: 9 shiftworkers tips
• Lack of sleep for New Zealanders costs billions

Sleep well,

Ed

Police officers fight to keep 12-hour shift schedule

Police officers in Brookfield, Illinois, USA are fighting to keep the 12-hour shifts they have worked under since 2004. Prior to that time they worked an 8-hour shift schedule. Changing from 8-hour shifts to 12-hour shifts has been in vogue over the past decade or so. Initially many shiftworkers and unions opposed such a move but many have come to embrace it -- much to the surprise of many people not familiar with the shiftwork world.

Why? With a 12-hour shift schedule you get a lot more days off. And there can be many other advantages as well. In this case, police officers have refused to sign off on a new contract, which would increase their pay, until they get the shift length issue resolved. Foregoing increased pay ... I'd say they feel strongly about it. The police department is wanting to revert to an 8-hour shift schedule because the 12-hour shifts incur greater overtime charges. With appropriate training and proper implementation alertness and performance on 12-hour shifts can be maintained at safe levels without additional health risks.

I hope the dispute will be worked out soon, for everyone's sake. If all parties are flexible, there are ways to maintain cost neutrality when switching between 8-h0ur shifts and 12-hour shifts.

You'll find more details in "Cop contract will go to arbitration: Brookfield officers want to keep12-hour shift schedule" which appeared in the January 9, 2008 edition of the Riverside/Brookfield Landmark.

Best practices for managing a shiftwork operation

In our previuos post, we discussed shiftworker lifestyle training as an important step for employers of shiftworkers to implement. Beyond shiftworker lifestyle training, a wide range of factors affect alertness and performance, and therefore the health, and safety of shiftworkers. Some of the most prominent are:

• Hiring practices
• Length of shift
• Shift schedule
• Rotating or fixed
• Overtime
• Work environment
• Overnight food selection.

In future posts on the National Shiftwork Information Center blog we'll look at each of these areas. Let us know your tips and practices so we can include them here.

Further reading:
* Shiftwork schedules in the 24/7 world
* Why managers in 24/7 need to pay attention to the special needs of shiftworkers
* Shiftwork schedules: fixed or rotating
* Shiftwork schedule factors: work-rest ratios and predictability
* Shiftwork schedule factors: speed and direction of rotation
* Shiftwork schedules: time of shift
* Hiring shiftworkers: best practices for managers in 24/7 operations
* Adapting to night shifts -- helping shiftworkers adapt and avoid shiftworker maladaptation

Shiftworker lifestyle training: fatigue countermeasures, sleep strategies, and more

From time to time articles appear in the general press about the dangers of shiftwork. It's important to understand the risks, but it's equally important to focus on practical steps to improve the health, safety and work performance of shiftworkers in 24/7 operations. One relatively easy, and relatively inexpensive step 24/7 business operators can take is to provide their employees with shiftworker lifestyle training.

Shiftworkers' alertness, hence their ability to perform effectively, is dependent on many factors. Some of those factors are beyond their control, such as their work schedule, but others are directly affected by the individual's actions. Lifestyle training means giving workers the knowledge they need to make appropriate adjustments to their lives in order to ensure health and safety.

As the name suggests, successful lifestyle training affects a worker's entire life, not merely his or her time at work. Adjustments on the part of shiftworkers will therefore be contingent upon acceptance by spouses and family members who also will be affected. For this reason, we recommend including spouses in lifestyle training whenever possible.

Lifestyle training should start with a non-technical discussion of circadian rhythms and how they effect human alertness. Shiftworkers, whether nurses, police officers, pilots, factory workers, or whomever, must understand there is a fundamental difference between day shift work and night shift work. Humans have evolved over millions of years to be awake during the day and asleep at night. Unless shiftworkers acknowledge this basic fact, the rest of the training process is meaningless.

After this first step, lifestyle training should address the following areas and provide specific details on fatigue countermeasures:

Sleep
Seven or eight hours of uninterrupted sleep are important to everyone's health and well-being. Our bodies are not programmed to sleep during the day. As a result, daytime sleep typically reduces both the quantity and quality of sleep. Making sure the sleeping room is dark, quiet, well-ventilated, and not too warm is an important step. A high-quality mattress also improves sleep.

Nutrition
People who work the night shift need to know about general nutrition, but that alone is not enough. Our bodies simply were not designed to eat at night. Your stomach won't digest full meals, so you should eat in smaller portions. Spicy, rich, and fatty foods are particularly hard to handle at night. Careless eating habits can cause indigestion, discomfort, drowsiness, and weight gain.

Family and social life
All shiftworkers have to think about many things differently than 9-to-5 workers. This is particularly true if you are trying to maintain a family and social life. Celebrating holidays a week early, videotaping children's birthday parties, and breakfast dates are just some of the accommodations you can make to keep connected to the rest of your life. People who emphasize communication and plan effectively have shown that work and family can mix and that single people can have a social life.

Job performance and safety
You need to emphasize safety because accidents are more likely to occur at night than on other shifts. One study found the number of accidents is 23 percent higher on the night shift. With knowledge of the factors that affect alertness, you can avoid safety lapses, improve work performance, and prevent falling asleep at the wheel.

Lifestyle training improves job performance, as well as employees' health, safety, and quality of life. This has been most thoroughly documented in a report on CANALERT '95, an alertness assurance program funded by Canada's three largest railroads, which took before-and-after measurements of a broad range of criteria. [More about CANALERT '95 at the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers website or at Railway Age.]

The improved health and quality of life, in turn, improve morale and tend to lower absenteeism and turnover rates. Absenteeism and turnover are particularly problematic in round-the-clock operations because of the difficulty of getting substitute workers on short notice and training new workers in a continuous operation environment.

Shiftworkers: have you received some sort of lifestyle training? Was it helpful? Did it include your spouse?

24/7 Managers: does your company provide shiftworker lifestyle training? What are the costs and benefits?

Share your opinions and experiences. Post a comment now.

Night shift work raises cancer risks, or not

Is shiftwork carcinogenic? That's what the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)says. This announcement contradicts the August article published by Science Daily "Night Shift Work Not Linked To Increased Risk Of Cancer: Contracts Earlier Study. "

The IARC announcement in December is an important one but clearly more work needs to be done. Society simply can't stop running 24/7. So where does the truth lie? More research is needed. This study found a slightly elevated risk of certain cancers, for certain shiftworkers working in two industries. Even if it is found that there's a correlation between shiftwork and cancer, researchers now need to determine what is it about shiftwork, or about shiftworkers and their behavior, that raises the cancer risk.

The Reno Gazette-Journal ran an article on the IARC story, as did many other publications in December.

Lack of sleep for New Zealanders costs billions

A December 8 article in the New Zealand Herald cited sleep experts and labor officials who said the cost of inadequate sleep is "up there with the big public health epidemics" and that the costs include health costs and lost productivity.

The article says "lack of sleep was linked to diabetes, obesity, heart problems, strokes, hypertension and some cancers," as well as one of the leading causes of car crashes.

According to Labour Minister Trevor Mallard "there were real safety concerns about fatigue in the workplace." The Labour Department will be releasing guidelines on managing shiftwork and fatigue and include advice on working a safe number of hours, recovery time between shifts, and training and education.

New book on circadian rhythms helps improve health and quality of life

Over the holidays, The Telegraph of London published an article on a new book by Jennifer Ackerman on understanding the body clock (circadian rhythms) and how to use that knowledge to improve health, diet, sleep, and your sex life.

A blog for Shiftworkers and their Managers

In the spring of 1995, I co-founded Circadian Information with Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, a world-renowned expert on circadian alertness and fatigue. Our intent was to create a publishing business that would serve the growing number of businesses that operated 24/7, to help them improve the health, safety, and alertness of their employees. We also had some publications for individual shiftworkers, to help them and their family members successfully handle the demands of an atypical work schedule.

We published the Shiftworker Family Calendar (now the Working Nights Family Calendar), Shiftwork Alert (a monthly newsletter for managers in 24/7 operations), Working Nights (a monthly newsletter for shiftworkers and their family members), Alertness on Track (for railroad workers), and numerous booklets and management reports. We were fairly successful at that and these publications, now part of Circadian Technologies, Inc., continue to this day.

I have never lost my interest in the subject of alertness and performance for shiftworkers and others who work at night. I have also always been aware that the type of expert information we published at Circadian Information, is only one piece of the puzzle. That's why I founded the National Shiftwork Information Center.

Shiftworker-to-shiftworker help and advice is an important element. A lot of this stuff is not rocket science but it can take a little while to learn. I'm creating this blog -- the National Shifwork Information Center -- to provide a forum for shiftworkers to share information among themselves. We will talk about important topics like sleep, napping, diet, caffeine/stimulants, lifestyle, human physiology, human factors, work performance, safety, and whatever else you want to discuss. I'll also provide links to other online resources I find that you might find useful.

Although I've covered this topic for a long time I don't know all the answers. But, I know that somewhere out there, someone does. And, your feedback on my posts, your suggestions, your critiques of other web resources, will all help make this a more valuable resource for you and the millions of people who work at night. So let's hear from you.

Note about the term "Shiftworker"
For lack of a better word, I tend to use the word "shiftworker" to describe anyone whose schedule has them working more than half of the time outside of the 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. time frame. I realize that includes the factory and utility workers we tend to think of as shiftworkers, but it also includes healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, technicians, etc.), transportation workers (pilots, flight attendants, ground crews, railroad engineers and conductors, truck drivers, merchant mariners, etc.), public safety (police, firefighters, military, secret service, etc.), and many others who need to be able to maintain alertness in the overnight hours to ensure effective and safe performance.

Please tell your friends and colleagues about this resource. It exists to help you, and them, improve health, safety, and quality of life. I hope that sounds pretty good. And it's free!

Ed Coburn
Executive Director and Blogger-in-Chief
National Shiftwork Information Center