If your working day starts when everyone else’s ends, your sleep is fighting your body clock every week. Here is how to give it a fair chance.
Shift work pushes sleep into hours when your body clock expects you to be awake, so sleep gets shorter and lighter, and mood often follows. A fixed block of sleep, a dark and quiet room, and well-timed caffeine help most.
Who this is for
Nurses and doctors on nights. Security guards on 12-hour shifts. Oil and gas workers on 14/14 or 28/28 rotations. Factory and brewery staff on rotating rotas, call-centre agents covering other time zones, bakers who start at 3am, and drivers who work nights because the roads are clear. Junior doctors have their own guide.
What these jobs share is a body clock that is asked to run backwards.
What night work does to sleep and mood
Your body clock is set mostly by light. Daylight pushes you towards alertness. In the evening your brain releases melatonin and pulls you towards sleep. Work through the night and you are awake while your body is trying to shut down. Try to sleep at 9am and it is doing the opposite.
Day sleep after a night shift is usually shorter and more broken, even in a dark room. Most night workers build up a sleep debt during the week and try to repay it on days off. Studies that follow shift workers find more insomnia, low mood and anxiety than in day workers, and more drowsy driving on the way home.
Nigeria adds its own obstacles:
- Noise. Generators, hawkers, neighbours, loudspeakers and school runs. The street is loudest exactly when you need to sleep.
- Heat and power cuts. A room that is fine at night can be an oven at 1pm with no fan.
- The commute. Two hours in traffic after a 12-hour shift leaves a short window before the day’s demands start.
- Family expectations. Being home in the daytime can look like being free. “Since you’re around, help me collect this” takes sleep in small bites.
A sleep plan that works on a rota
Keep an anchor
Choose about four hours of sleep that you keep at the same time every day, workdays and days off. For many night workers that is roughly 8am to noon. Add the rest of your sleep around it.
On days off, go to bed late and wake late rather than flipping straight back to a daytime pattern. Sleeping from about 3am to 11am keeps part of your work-day sleep in place, so the next run of nights is less of a shock.
After a night shift
- Block the morning light. Wear sunglasses on the way home, even if you feel silly. Bright morning light tells your brain the day has started.
- Go to bed soon after you get in. A long scroll or a heavy breakfast pushes sleep later.
- Make the room dark. Blackout curtains, a dark cloth pinned over the window, or an eye mask.
- Plan for noise. Foam earplugs, or a fan whose hum covers the street.
- Plan for heat. Use the coolest room you have, take a cool shower before bed, and keep a rechargeable fan for when the power goes.
- Silence your phone. Do Not Disturb, with a few key people allowed through.
- Tell your household your sleep hours the way you would tell them a meeting time. A note on the door helps.
Before and during the shift
- Nap before a night shift. A sleep in the late afternoon makes the early hours of the morning easier.
- Use caffeine early, not late. Coffee, energy drinks and kola nut stay in your system for hours. Stop about six hours before you plan to sleep.
- Get bright light in the first half of the shift, and keep the last hours dimmer if your work allows it.
- Eat a proper meal before the shift and lighter snacks through the night. A heavy meal at 3am sits badly.
- Move. A walk round the site, the stairs or a few stretches.
If your rota rotates
Rotas that move forward, from days to evenings to nights, are easier on the body clock than rotas that move backwards. If you have any say, ask for forward rotation and at least two days off after a run of nights.
Suggested read: Autism in Adults: Signs and Getting Assessed
Rotation work: the time at home counts too
On a 14/14 or 28/28 rotation the hard part is not only on site. Your partner has run the house alone for weeks and has systems that don’t include you. The children have routines. You want rest, and they want you. Many rotation workers say they feel like a guest in their own home for the first few days.
- Expect a few days of adjustment each way, and say so out loud.
- Agree before you leave who handles what while you’re away, and what changes when you’re back.
- Stay in touch from site in small ways, not only in long calls.
Signs it is going beyond tiredness
- You nod off on the drive or okada ride home, or you’ve had near misses.
- Low mood, irritability or anxiety doesn’t lift on your days off.
- You need alcohol to fall asleep.
- You are buying sleeping tablets or strong painkillers over the counter to cope.
- You’ve stopped seeing people because every free hour goes to sleep.
- Your family says you’re not yourself.
Tablets from a chemist are a common shortcut. They can leave you groggy at work or at the wheel, and they mix badly with alcohol. Speak to a doctor instead.
If sleep has been poor for weeks, our guide to insomnia explains the treatment that works best, which is a form of talking therapy rather than pills. If your mood is sinking, read about stress and how it builds.
For employers
Rota design is a mental health decision. Forward rotation, real breaks, a quiet place to nap, safe transport after nights, and a way to ask for help without it landing on someone’s record all reduce the damage. Our HR guide to mental health benefits covers what to offer.
Getting support
Sessions on Mytherapist.ng are by video, voice or chat, so you can fit one into a day off without another commute. Find a therapist who works with stress and burnout.
Frequently asked questions
How can I sleep better after a night shift?
Block morning light on the way home, go to bed soon after you arrive, and sleep in a dark, cool, quiet room. Keep about four hours of sleep at the same time every day, including days off.
Is night shift work bad for your mental health?
It raises the risk of poor sleep, low mood and anxiety, mainly through sleep loss and a disrupted body clock. Protecting your sleep and keeping time for people lowers that risk.
How much sleep does a night shift worker need?
The same as anyone else, usually seven to nine hours in 24. It can be split into a main sleep after the shift and a nap before the next one.
Should I take sleeping pills for shift work?
Not without a doctor. Pills bought over the counter can leave you drowsy at work or on the road, and they interact with alcohol.
What is shift work sleep disorder?
Ongoing insomnia or heavy sleepiness caused by a work schedule that overlaps normal sleep hours, lasting months rather than days. A doctor can assess it.
Suggested read: Workplace Burnout in Nigeria: Signs You’re Running on Empty (and What to Do)
