The Health Problem With you Being a Night Owl
The subjects that we’re talking about today is night owls, people who stay up late, maybe people who work the night shift, and what that does to your body and how that is affecting your health and wellbeing.
There are actually some pretty shocking statistics out there when you look at people who work graveyard shifts. These people die, on average, somewhere around 10 to 15 years earlier than people who just simply do not work those shifts. And, this is they have increased rates of all types of mortality across the board by simply working late shifts. We are just, the simple truth is, we’re not genetically designed to be working all night long. And, if you’re like me, that is a little surprising because I know I personally feel like I might be tired all day and come 7:00 at night, I start to wake up and I get amped up and left to my own devices, I’d probably go to bed every night at 2:00 in the morning and be getting up at 10:00 to 11:00. And in the later morning of that too.
I understand the tendency of people to do this. What is really important with sleep and what we’re finding now the science and research shows though, is that you’re creating consistency with your sleep. You have a thing called your circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm is literally an internal biological 24-hour clock. And the more consistency you can create with your circadian rhythm, and when I say consistency, I mean consistency of when you go to sleep and when you get up the better, it’s going to fair for your health and wellbeing in the long-term.
One of the big problems with night workers is so often is they’re doing that four days a week, three days a week, and then the other days they’re not doing that. So they’re all over the board. Hey, one night I’m going to bed at 8:00 at night, the next night I’m going to bed at 5:00 AM in the morning because they’re getting off their shift.
That is been shown to be incredibly detrimental to your health and wellbeing.
If you’re looking to, if you’re in a field right now where it’s required to night work, or you’re just like, “Hey, I like to be a night owl,” this is important information for you to know because this is something that you really need to be aware of. It’s in your power to take charge of this. I’ve had clients who literally have changed careers because they see the negative effects of whatever stress and sleep can be, one of those that their job is putting on them.
Really important that you get consistency with your sleep if you can. The way we’re just biologically designed is not to be staying up all night, so it’s better to join the majority of the human species that are up and doing their stuff during the daytime and sleeping at night. That’s just the nature of who we are as a species. And if you are a night worker, well, then create consistency, and as much as possible, just create that consistency of, “Hey, I’m up at night and I’m sleeping during the day.” There are things that you can do to hack that, certain supplements you can take, melatonin being one of them. And there is things you can do to block out the light completely, even if you do have to sleep during the day.
Really important to understand your circadian rhythm, understand what night shift working might be doing to you or what is a night owl might be doing with you. Or, if you’re just one of these people like, “Hey, on the weekends I go hard and I stay up late,” it’s good to have those nights every now and then, but be empowered and understand what that’s doing to your health and wellbeing.
