Night Shift Worker

k7lit

I work permanent night shifts so I eat all hours of the day and night and basically sit around all night at work. I am usually so exhausted after a 12hr shift I make poor food choices at home and snack out of boredom at work. Any advice on healthy snacks or motivation to exercise after a long shift would be appreciated.

cincysweetheart

General advice from someone who has been working full time night shift for almost 8 years. Sounds like you need to get yourself into a routine. Luckily your schedule is permanent… so it should be doable for you. Set aside some sleep time. You absolutely need your sleep if you are going to survive a night shift! Set aside a workout time. Exercise is not only healthy… it will gives you more energy. I typically will workout when my energy is the highest and for me that's in the evening after I wake up. Then I can come home, shower, and get ready for work. But that may be different for others.

Make sure you are eating solid, regular meals and getting adequate protein. Make sure you are drinking plenty of water. It will help with the "snacky" times. Plan ahead and take healthy snacks with you. Fresh veggies, fruit, string cheese, greek yogurt, a turkey sandwich. All good options for work.

Snooozie

There's a couple of groups on here for night shift workers ....(use the search feature with keywords like 3rd shift, third shift, nights, night shift etc) and you should be able to find a few where you can get lots of excellent help and ideas

RodaRose

First of all, make some changes so that you can get more sleep. Also, keep your days off on the same sleep schedule as the working days.