Topsy Turvy
Three nights a week, I work in-house at the Irish Times doing production for the website. When I started night shifts I worried if I’d be able to stay awake as I’m naturally more of a lark than an owl, but harsh strip-lighting, chatty colleagues and gallons of tea means that’s not a problem.
What is a problem is that doing three nights and then freelancing during the day means I feel permanently topsy turvy. I do sleep in after a shift but I also try to slot back into sync with the rest of the world when I’m off, meaning that I’m always altering my working hours and the time I’m going to bed. It’s like having a constant case of jet lag.
Every so often a study is published linking shift work to cancer or a shortened lifespan, most of which I try to ignore. What I’m more interested in, because I can feel them directly, are the immediate effects. Mentally, I’ve noticed that when I’m on a run of shifts my concentration span is shorter and my short-term memory is terrible. Physically, I have lower energy levels and I get hungry at strange times. My colleagues and I all put on weight when we started thanks to 11pm hunger pangs.
Thankfully my shifts aren’t all-nighters – we tend to finish around 2am – although it takes me a while after getting home before I wind down enough to want to go to sleep. I can’t imagine how the people who do the late-all night-early shift rotations feel.
Tonight’s the last of my night shifts for a while but I have a feeling it’s going to be a long one because today the Irish government are unveiling their austerity budget. Hopefully it won’t take me long to get back to normal but who knows what normal will look like tomorrow?
