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Finding time to eat well when working on shifts is hard to do, so here are five easy ways to get the right food choices to provide sustained energy to get through your shift and get a good night’s sleep.
I am a former police officer and when I qualified in Nutritional Therapy in March 2021, I was driven by the lack of healthy meal opportunities and provisions working in a 24-hour emergency service, and can evidence a clear correlation between diet and lifestyle and chronic health conditions.
My work now specialises in chrononutrition, this is how our digestive system works on its 24-hour body clock, similarly to many biological functions, such as the wake-sleep cycle. The bottom line is that we are designed to be active and digest food for fuel during daylight hours. At night, our digestive system assumes we are resting, allowing the body to detox and repair, so it winds down as our sleepiness hormones rise in preparation for going to bed.
This is a challenge for the 8.5 million shift workers in the UK, who require fuel for focus and action during their nocturnal workday. Here are my five top tips for eating well.
Number one is avoid heavy, high-fat, meaty dishes at night. Try to swap these for plant-based, smaller meals.
It’s easy to reach for a sugary snack but these can lead to blood sugar spikes, with that inevitable crash, that leads to fatigue, food cravings and low mood. As our blood sugar crashes after that initial peak, we can feel sleepy, which is not ideal if you are driving, assessing a dangerous or highly emotive situation and need to be calm, rational, compassionate and focused, whatever the hour.
So my second tip is to reduce your reliance on sugar for energy. Look for more energy-sustaining snacks like nuts, yoghurt, fruit or whole-grain crackers.
A reliance on caffeine and sugar through the night can then also impact sleep after the shift, with a vicious cycle created of poor diet, poor sleep, low mood. My third tip is to have your caffeine early in your shift and avoid it in the 4-6 hours before you plan to sleep.
We all know we should drink plenty of water but actually drinking a couple of litres of water a day is a daunting prospect. My fourth tip is to get into the habit of drinking throughout your shift as you’ll find it will reduce fatigue and reaching for your water bottle and not a snack has double benefits.
Preparing food to take to work is unfortunately one of the only ways to guarantee access to healthy food during unsociable hours, when most staff canteens and food outlets are closed. Making extra the night before and taking that with you is one way to do this and you can find recipes on the Oscar Kilo website where there are helpful nutrition resources. My fifth and final tip is to take a few extra minutes to eat slowly and mindfully to help with digestion and portion control.
I know all too well that sometimes you can’t go back to base to eat that meal you prepared the night before so familiarise yourself with healthier food options available near your workplace, and create new habits choosing these over ultra-processed items.
After you have digested my five top tips, take some time to talk to your senior leaders about the impact of nutrition on energy and health, and ask for support in prioritising and encouraging a healthier environment at work 24/7 because everything we eat and drink affects how we think, feel and perform.
To find out more, visit www.nutrivival.co.uk.
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