Shiftwork and Stress
What is stress?
There are many definitions of stress, and many theories about what causes it. Key definitions and concepts adopted by the Occupational Safety and Health Service (OSH) when it considers workplace stress are:
Stress – Workplace stress is the result of the interaction between a person and their work environment. For the person it is the awareness of not being able to cope with the demands of their work environment, with an associated negative emotional response.
Stressors – These are events or circumstances that lead to someone feeling that physical or psychological demands are about to exceed his or her ability to cope. Stressors can be of several types. Stressors can:
• Be inherent in the job because of factors that make that occupation what it is – for example, the mixture of pressures in police work, with shift work, the threat of violence and sometimes dealing with emotionally repugnant material.
• Arise because of the way the job is organised. This may include physical factors (excess heat, noise, cold etc) as well as physiological factors that affect the body’s balance (such as shift work, inadequate recuperative time etc).
• Arise out of excessive work demands such as unrealistic deadlines.
• Arise out of personal factors such as health status, relationships, ability to cope with difficult situations etc.
Why is shiftwork more Stressful than day work?
The main cause of shift stress is working on a night shift, after 11:00pm and before 6:00am, especially at 3:00am in the morning. This period is when the body is at its lowest ebb and its the time it resets its daily biological clock. So if you are awake - and demanding that the body be fully functioning by working - there is an inherent conflict occurring. You should be instead fully asleep, like most other people are at that time of the morning. This conflict causes circadian dysrhythmia, or disruption to your awake/sleep cycle.
Some schedules are more fatiguing than others. Evidence by other researchers suggests that every consecutive night work increases sleep debt causing an accumalive sleep debt. .
Many workers have told us that one of the biggest challenges they face is getting a good sleep. Lack of sleep or poor quality sleep, (where they sleep but wake up un-refreshed) makes them feel tired, irritable, less productive, more prone to accidents and more likely to take time off work.
Is Shiftwork Right for You?
Because people are different there is a big difference to how much each person suffers from shiftwork stress. Some find night work very difficult, others find it difficult to juggle family and social demands with shift schedules. If you are one of those who finds night shiftwork very difficult try finding out what your body clock type is or if there are other factors that can be improved such as your alertness strategies and attention to diet.
Contact us for a discussion about your industry requirements