[323] - Shift Work, Circadian Disruption And Its Impact On Your Mental Health

We unpack how circadian disruption drives low mood, anxiety, and poor sleep for shift workers and why timing—not willpower—is the real lever. Roger shares lived experience and simple anchors that steady the mind: light, routine, food, movement, and deep sleep.

• circadian rhythm as a mood and hormone regulator
• how desynchronisation raises stress and lowers emotional control
• frontline roles and increased vulnerability to mental ill health
• common coping tools that backfire: alcohol, nicotine, energy drinks
• morning light and outdoor time as foundational anchors
• simple routines for wake, meals, and wind-down on changing rosters
• steady nutrition with protein, fibre, and lower GI foods
• movement over exercise and why short walks work
• caffeine cut-off at 12 for better sleep
• sleep hygiene, blackout rooms, and masks for deeper rest
• practical steps to break the sleep–mood spiral

If you need help with this, I’ve got 40 years of experience and I’m happy to help you to work through how to synchronize your circadian rhythm in a desynchronized world. The link is in the show notes
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released
It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you’re currently listening on
If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealthyshift.com

Chapters

• 4:52 Welcome And Lived Experience
• 6:15 Mental Health And Circadian Timing
• 8:31 What Desynchronisation Does To Mood
• 10:22 Frontline Roles And Added Risk
• 12:57 Why Common Coping Makes It Worse
• 16:04 Light As A Daily Anchor
• 17:49 Routine And Meal Timing
• 19:36 Movement Over Exercise

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 3:17

Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to a healthy shift. My name is Roger Sutherland, certified nutritionist, veteran law enforcement officer, and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades. Through this podcast, I aim to educate shift workers using evidence-based methods to not only survive the rigors of shift work, but thrive. My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and well-being so they have more energy to do the things they love. Enjoy today's show. And welcome back to another episode of a healthy shift podcast. My name, I am your guide, Roger Sutherland, you know who I am, and I'm here to guide you through the minefield that is actually shift work from a lived experience. Not from a research perspective, from someone who's actually lived it for 40 years. And what I do is I read the research and I learn and understand, and then I apply what I'm learning into your shift working world because I know what works and what doesn't. I've done it for a long time. And while I may not know exactly what your job is, I certainly know what that feeling is like. So what I want to do today, I actually want to talk about something that most shift workers feel, but you won't always understand. And I think you'll find you'll actually have a bit of a light bulb moment today in relation to those impacts that you get at certain times around your mental health, why you feel flat, why you can feel really ordinary. Um, and shift work takes a major toll on our mental health. And I just wanted to discuss that because, in fairness, I've struggled of late, and I I've done really well, and I've spent many, many years working on myself after sanctuary trauma caused PTSD in my role in Victoria Police, and it led to me being ill-health retired. And I've done a lot of work over the last, what, four years to navigate that. And every now and again it comes up, and it can be other things that actually trigger it. But what I want to do is I want to talk about a few of the things that actually trigger it as a result of shift work. Now, let's just take what you do for a job out of it just for one second, all right? Because today I want to talk about how mental health is actually tied to your body clock. And when that clock is out of sync, your mind actually pays the price. And it's a vicious circle that we go in here because what we do is we have mental health problems and then we don't sleep. And that not sleeping causes mental health problems. And that is literally what it actually does and how it goes about. And somewhere along the line, you have to actually break into the cycle to reverse that. And let's talk about that today. I think it's something that's really important. Let's talk about how circadian disruption does affect your mental health. Because your circadian rhythm isn't just a sleep timer, it controls mood, it controls your hormones, your energy, your appetite, it controls your stress tolerance and also your emotional stability. Have a think about those nights when you haven't had that good sleep, you've really struggled. Think about the domino effect of how everything seems to go wrong. And it does, because everything is out of sync in your body, and that is the circadian disruption. Now, when shift work pulls your sleep and light exposure and eating patterns all over the place, you actually get what we call circadian desynchronization. And this is when your brain and your body are no longer running on the same schedule. And this is important to understand. And this is where the mental health problems start. And if you think about your role, and I'm talking to you, nurses, polices, polices, nurses, police, paramedics, people like that, or people in emergency services and working on the front line, people who are emergency dispatchers, radio dispatchers, and all of those types of people, think about those times of when you're really suffering with your mental health and the circadian desynchronization. So here is what actually happens. Take a note, and this is where you can identify where the problems are. Number one, you get a lower mood and a higher stress. Now, why does this occur? It's because your body is producing cortisol at the wrong times. And what happens is this can leave you feeling really flat when you actually need energy and wired when you actually want to rest. So everything's all haywire there, and this is what circadian desynchronization causes. You get to the stage where you struggle with emotional regulation. Your brain is actually using circadian signals to keep your emotions steady. And when those signals start to get scrambled, you can feel more reactive, more sensitive, and a long lot less in control. You can get more anxiety, poor sleep, and irregular routines increase that fight or flight response. And your brain becomes jumpy. Your thoughts actually speed up. You can lose cognitive strength. Your concentration drops. Think about it. When you get tired, you just cannot possibly think straight. Memory slips, simple tasks suddenly feels so much harder. Now, this is not weakness, it's actually biology. This is what is going on. And then you become more vulnerable to depression because circadian disruption affects serotonin and dopamine. Remember, our circadian rhythm is a hormonal regulator. It tells what hormones are to be released and when. And exposure to light and things at different times are causing us problems. So when they drift out of range, of course, our mood drops. And this is why many shift workers feel so off, they can feel overwhelmed or unlike themselves. And it's not character, it's literally timing. So why common coping coping strategies actually make this worse? What do we reach for when we're suffering with our mental health? Let's talk about that. Because many shift workers will lean on alcohol to relax and sleep, nicotine, energy drinks, or they're overeating to take the edge off it. Now look, don't get me wrong, I absolutely get why. Because it's quick and it's actually familiar. Oh, I need a drink to relax. People are on the Siggy's. Oh, I'm stressed. I need a Siggy. The energy drinks, those monster energy drinks that people are slamming down all the time. And we get to the stage where we're chasing a dopamine hit, so we're overeating, chasing that those highly palatable carbohydrates and fats. Then we feel guilty and it impacts on our mental health again. As I said, I get this. I know why. I've been there. It's quick, it's familiar, it actually works, and it works instantaneously. But these coping tools are hitting the same systems that are already disrupted and causing bigger problems. How? Alcohol. Alcohol, while it is a relaxant, I agree with that, it actually fragments your sleep. Sleep. This is what we need. When we're suffering with our mental health, we need to be getting synchronized light day signals and proper sleep. Because what happens is when our sleep is fragmented, it actually increases our anxiety the next day and then it worsens depression. Nicotine spikes stress hormones and it interrupts our natural sleep weight cycle again. Both of those make the mental load heavier. Now, shift workers don't need more load. What they need is actual routine and stability. So what actually helps your mental health, right? So if you feel yourself really struggling, and as I've said to you before, this is where I've been over the last few weeks. Now you don't know what goes on in the background here, but I can tell you there's been significant battles inside myself. But because of the pillars that I've put in place of the strategies, I'm able to look within and look in and see what I'm not actually getting right and put the strategies in place. And these are the strategies that I put in place. Number one, no surprise here, get early light exposure when possible. Why? Because morning light anchors your circadian rhythm, it tells your brain what time it is. And what this does is it actually steadies your mood, it lowers your stress, and it sharpens up your focus. So if you're coming off night shift, you want to get daylight asap as soon as you wake up. Now, I want to be clear on this. We're not talking light, we're talking daylight outside. We want to be getting that daylight outside. The point is this give your brain a very clear and very consistent cue as to where it's at in time and space. And we do this through light, daylight. The other number two is to keep regular routines where you can. Because shift work won't give you a perfect structure. You can't, and you might say, Oh, well, and throw it all, your hands in the air, and that's it. But what you can do is you can control your anchors, you can wake your wake time after your night shift, your meal timing, your wind-down habits, your bedtime routines on your days off. These are all anchors that help to synchronize your circadian rhythm and literally calm down your nervous system. A desynchronized circadian rhythm equals a highly agitated nervous system as well. And we can end up living in that sympathetic state, and you can't live there, trust me. Number three is to eat nutritious food on a steady schedule. Now I know you think you can't, but you absolutely can. Your gut also has its own clock, and when you eat random or heavy meals overnight, your gut disrupts the signal that influences your mood. So prioritize those whole foods, fiber, protein, steady meal times, lower GI foods. What this does is helps to stabilize your blood sugar, it helps to stabilize both your energy, which helps to stabilize your mood. Protein and fiber. Lower GI is what we need. Number four is to move your body. Now you don't I don't want people to think of it as exercise. Exercise has the connotation of I've got to put my runners on, got to put my shorts on, I've got to put my my um singlet on, or I've got to put my crop on, or I've got to do whatever, I've got to go out, I've got to run, it's gonna hurt, it's gonna be a problem. Oh my god, gotta get to the gym, don't want to do that. I wonder who's there, oh it's gonna be busy. Can you see all of the things that go through your mind when you think exercise? Let's change it and call it movement. You don't have to do long workouts. I can tell you now, just getting out and going for a walk a few times around the block, just 10 to 20 minutes will literally improve your mood by increasing dopamine and serotonin and will reduce cortisol. Movement and walking is literally one of the strongest tools that you have in your toolbox. Now, while resistance training is fantastic for you, and everybody should be resistance training, without any doubt whatsoever. But movement is very important, and walking is highly underrated. Walking out in that green light, and you might think, where's the green light? The green is what's reflecting off everyone's lawns, off everyone's plants, off the trees. That green light is very calming to you. It's very calming to your nervous system. So get out in the early part of the day and move your body. It's another cue to your circadian rhythm, where it is at in time and space. One of the most important things is to keep alcohol and nicotine low or actually completely avoid them. Not for moral reasons, but for literally mental health reasons. Well, not to mention the fact that alcohol and nicotine are both incredibly unhealthy. They're both poisons and toxins in the body. Both of them make sleep worse, and they also make your mood a lot less stable. Now you cannot heal a disrupted system by adding more disruption. Now I'm fortunate because I don't drink anymore. I gave up alcohol. In fact, it was a New Year's resolution, 2023, and I haven't touched a drop of alcohol since, and I feel so much better for it. Now I'm not telling you you've got to give up, but what I'm saying to you is when you are struggling, it's an easy spiral to go into. Alcohol, nicotine, drugs, whatever, it can cause you all sorts of problems. So start to reduce those. And the other thing, and the most important, which is the last one, is to protect your sleep like your mental health depends on it. And do you know why? Because it actually does. So you need to set up a completely dark sleeping space. Completely dark. And when I say that, I mean when you lie in bed, if you hold your hand outstretched, with your arm outstretched, and you can see your hand at the end of your arm, it is too light in your bedroom. And you actually need to get yourself a sleep mask. Or you need to get blackout blinds, or you need something. You need to darken your room to the stage where you cannot see your hand at the end of your outstretched arm. Very important. And clients of mine that are using sleep masks now, or people, the feedback that I get from people that are using this mantle sleep mask is phenomenal. People can't believe how much better they're sleeping, they can't believe how comfortable they are, they can't believe that how much of an impact something so simple can make on their sleep. Yes, it's it's a good investment, it's a very, very good investment for you. So try that. We need wind-down cues. We need a sleep hygiene, a routine to go to sleep. Whether you're on day shift, afternoon shift, night shift, it doesn't matter what shift you're on, if you've got a routine to get into bed and go to sleep, then what you'll find is that your body will cue into we are going to sleep because of that routine. This is the best way of going about it. Have a sleep hygiene. Avoid caffeine late in the shift. In fact, use the 12 o'clock rule that I put in place. 12 o'clock. No alcohol, no, sorry, no caffeine after 12 o'clock. Day shift, afternoon shift, nothing after 12 midday. Night shift, nothing after 12 midnight. If you stick to that rule, you'll be amazed at how much better you sleep. And then you've got less need for caffeine. Once again, we're breaking into that cycle. So that's all I wanted to say on this today, but I did want to tell you that it's not just what you're being exposed to, but what you're being exposed to is you are less vulner more vulnerable with circadian desynchronization. And this is one of the main reasons why people in these roles, like nursing and policing and paramedics and fireers, struggle, first responders struggling with mental health more because they're more vulnerable, not only because of what they're being exposed to, but through circadian disruption. Shift work makes it a lot harder because it disrupts the very symptom that keeps you stable. But you are not powerless, and I've shown you, and I'm working through this myself with all of those simple strategies. They are what actually helps you. Doesn't hinder you, helps you. Light, routine, food, movement, and sleep are all incredibly strong anchors to help to synchronize your circadian rhythm. So reduce the coping tools that make things worse and strengthen the foundations that keep your mind steady. Small steps will help you to feel like yourself again. And if you need help with this, I've got 40 years of experience and I'm happy to help you to work through how to synchronize your circadian rhythm in a desynchronized world. The link is in the show notes, and I'll talk to you on the next one. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released. It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on. If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealthyshift.com. I'll catch you on the next one.