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In today's wired world, many of us work all hours of the day or night, which affects our well-being and safety. Fatigue among shift workers is an internationally recognized problem across many industries.
Night workers are just as likely as day workers to perform tasks requiring attention to detail, reasoning, decision-making, and other mental skills and not just in the stereotypical roles. Actors, musicians, television news anchors, computer programmers, doctors on call, diplomats and business executives can all end up working long or irregular hours.
What is the impact of shift work?
A night worker, even one who has slept reasonably well, is no more alert between 2am and 8am than a day worker who has slept only 4 hours per night, 2 nights in a row. The cost of mistakes made by fatigued workers - including lost production, missed days from work, and medical costs - is estimated in billions of pounds.
Indications of fatigue:
• Wandering and disconnected thoughts
• Headaches or stomach aches
• Drowsiness during shift and inability to sleep after shift
• Poor attention to minor but potentially important details
• Degraded mental abilities (including memory, decision-making, and perception)
• More easily distracted and irritable
What can be done to lessen the adverse effects of shift work?
Clinical research now confirms that bright light, in specific wavelengths, can help shift the internal body clock and regulate sleep patterns when used for 30 to 40 minutes upon waking. With proper use of an effective source of bright white light, such as The Litebook, shift workers and people who work irregular hours can feel more alert, energetic, and, in turn, notice an improvement in on-the-job performance.
Tests with operational police officers found that those with free access to The Litebook during their night shift were generally more alert, more accurate and had much faster reaction times than their colleagues. We rely so much on the skills of key workers, such as doctors, nurses, paramedics, computer maintenance, airline pilots, who work extended night shifts and these findings are extremely important.
Further research has investigated ways to improve the daytime sleep patterns of those that work at night. The inability to get enough good quality sleep just compounds the problems of working anti-social hours. The key problem is that once the eyes have been exposed to daylight the bodyclock in the brain is reset and it is very difficult to fall asleep when the brain is trying to activate the body.
It is possible to block the key wavelength of light (470nm) that stimulates the brain by using 'blue blocker' glasses. These yellow/orange lenses effectively prevent the entry of blue light into the eye and therefore prevents the suppression of melatonin. Users of 'blue blocker' glasses are able to drive home safely with clear vision and then, in the comfort of their darkened bedroom, can experience a longer more satisfying sleep period as if they had just reached the end of a normal working day.
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