It's really hard to juggle social, family, household and work with getting enough sleep.” “Just being able to feel more clear-minded and enjoy my time away from work.
But it wasn't until I finished working shift work that I realised how different life could be if I could get enough sleep. “I am a bit of a night owl so I found it probably easier than some do. O’Keefe worked nights for five years in a clinical sleep laboratory. And 65 per cent had felt sleepy at the wheel in the previous year. Their nationwide study of nurses in acute care (like surgical, mental health, emergency, and intensive care wards) found 38 per cent had a sleep problem lasting more than six months, 30 per cent recalled a fatigue-related clinical error in the previous six months.
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Karyn O’Keefe, of the Sleep/Wake Research Centre at Massey University, helped create the Safer Nursing Project, aimed at raising awareness and creating a code of practice on managing fatigue for DHBs. Supermarket worker Warren Smith takes a dinner break. But it may equally be making sure … employers design a workspace that is well-ventilated, where workers can take a break, have good access to food and drink.” That might be big picture things like eliminating night shift work all together. So that employers and workers really understand what they need to do to create a mentally healthy work environment. “We want to really promote the concept of good work design. We've carried out a worker exposure survey and we intend to repeat that again every two or three years,” Epps says. “We're trying to understand how significant the health effects of work are in New Zealand. Worksafe previously focused on preventing work-related injuries, but is now shifting attention to ill-health.Ī worker is 15 times more likely to die from a disease than from a workplace accident, and work-related health deaths could be as many as 900 per year, a recent study found. “Worksafe absolutely has a crucial role to play.”Ĭatherine Epps is the agency’s head of health and technical services. “In the past, I think that information available to our workforce has been appallingly poor,” she says. Signal is working with health and safety regulator Worksafe to review its guidance on shift work. Health experts and unions fear that too few employers have policies in place to mitigate the risks associated with night work. “I know you get a little bit of extra money but I think it's not worth it.” “I get good sleep, I feel energised, I get through the day and I'm so glad to be off it. Ikani, 36, from Mangere, says he got his life back when he took another job.
I couldn’t follow what they were saying.” I’d talk to someone, like my parents, and I'd be looking at them but my mind was asleep.
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“My body didn't know how to handle that change. Ikani found he couldn’t catch-up on lost sleep. But the main one was I started getting migraines about 2 or 3am.” “My immune system started getting a bit weaker … coughing a little. I used to be really fit and the first year I was able to switch my gym routine to morning, but after six months it just got too hard. “I was working from 12 midnight to 8am in a warehouse and after the first year I started noticing the changes. After four years of feeling like “a zombie” he gave it up - even though the pay was much better. It also controls mood, alertness, and body temperature over a 24-hour period.Įdwin Ikani, a foreman, found his body couldn’t handle working at night.
Working after dark runs counter to the body’s circadian rhythm, an internal clock or timer that lets our glands know when to release hormones. “Once you start feeling like that, the night just seems to drag on, so you tend to keep yourself busy and active.”
Maybe because I’ve been doing it for so long, I’ve kind of trained my body not to get tired. Walking the dogs or I was right into my boxing, I’ve got a bag out the back.” So, I try and do something every morning when I get home. I've got down to about 108kg and I felt good. I had high blood pressure, I was on the verge of diabetes. “I was at a weight of maybe 170kg and that’s through lack of sleep and I’d say not eating properly. In the middle of a house renovation, he also had trouble sleeping. A few years ago, Maipi noticed he was gaining weight. He loves his job - particularly the camaraderie with his tight-knit team - but he says it can be an unhealthy lifestyle.
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