31  VARIABLE SLEEP TIMES

This is one of the general conditions of Step B that can influence a person’s ability to sleep.

A person’s schedule may keep changing, as for example, in doing rotating shift work. This can happen in police, hospital or other service work.

31a. The Issue

In these circumstances, a person has to continually re-adjust to new sleep times, often with considerable difficulty.

Commonly, it involves one week on the night shift, followed by a week on the evening shift, and then a week on day shift. The person must re-set his/her internal clock and make corresponding adjustments to family, friends, activities, and so on.

There may be a slight advantage, relative to night shift, in that for two of the three rotations a person can use the same period for sleep (commonly the night shift -11PM to 7AM).

 

31b. Individual Adjustments

Many of the suggestions for dealing with night shift insomnia (Section 26;see also Sack, 190) apply to rotating shift work as well.

However, because repeated shift changes can be disorienting, Hauri and Linde (p.159) suggest adjusting each scheduled time period at home so it anticipates the subsequent shift change.

Glovinsky and Spielman (203-206) make another suggestion a person whose schedule keeps shifting or sleep time is otherwise variable or fragmented. They recommend finding – if possible – a time period that can remain consistent, and “anchor” the person’s sleep schedule to that. To do so is to schedule the same block of time to sleep every, and allow other sleep times to come up as needed. The person, in effect has a regular sleep time of four or more hours and one or more nap times each day. Having a consistent time allows a person’s circadian clock to “anchor” to that time, and makes it easier to sleep then. The person’s sleep drive, a function of physiological need, can contribute to sleep at that time and to naps at other times. These authors give a case example showing that the approach may require supplementing with other techniques, such as caffeine to stay awake during a work shift.

 

31c. Schedule and Policy Adjustments

In general, it is best to shift schedules as seldom as possible, because each shift is disruptive. Hauri and Linde (155–157) recommend that rotations last longer, for three weeks or more at each shift before switching, and that shifts change from morning to evening to night. There is research to show that these changes benefit workers and employers both, in performance, job satisfaction, and attitudes and health of workers. They also point out several examples (pp 157-158) of the dangers of sleep loss to truck drivers, airplane pilots and others, often because of night- or rotating-shift work.