Question:
I am looking for information as to how shift work (i.e. swing shift and
graveyard shift) affect the human body and mind. Specifically in terms of
health, safety and productivity in the workplace.
My boss is of the mind that it as long as the total number of hours
worked is the same it doesn't matter whether one works a day shift or
a swing shift. My body tells me otherwise.
Any info you can pass along would be greatly appreciated.
Answer:
It's very hard to switch your body clock around so you are awake at
night and asleep in the day. Read "the 24hour society"(??) by Martin
Moore-Ede. Note 3 Mile Island, Chernobyl, Piper Alpha, Epson Valdez,
most car crashes(per vehicle mile) take place betw midnight and 5am
If you've gotta:
use lights to wake you up (commercial interest, My co makes light
boxes etc)
keep the light in the workplace high (above 1000 lux which is 2x as
bright as a normal well-lit office)
buy the worlds best curtains/blinds
try to get home and to bed before sunrise
stick to nights for a long stretch (3 weeks plus), don't alternate too
rapidly
NOTE a lot of the research is not home yet, this is an early and no
doubt less than completely accurate snapshot of current knowledge
Check out an excellent book entitled Bodyrhythms: Chronobiology and Peak
Performance, By Lynne Lamberg, Morrow, 1994.
A very good book for explaining the mechanisms of sleep is "Winston
Churchill's Afternoon Nap" which came out in the 80's, I think.
Also, I believe that NASA (yep, the same folks who put Americans on the
moon) is doing a lot of research on this topic. I did come across a
web site of theirs once, but I can't remember where I saw it. Try
www.yahoo.com (a search engine) and look them up.
