Discover how Light Therapy can help night-shift-workers

These problems linked to sleep encourage the occurence
of psychological problems and the beginning of various chronic
illnesses. These chronic illnesses general appear after several years of
work.

Depressive tendancies and mood problems: + 15 to 20%

Cardiovascular problems: x 2

Gastric problems: x 5

Possible treatments to feel better when working at night

Some advice link to light (and the avoidance of it) may help the worker to adapt his body to the shift pattern.

A light therapy session at the right time, thanks to its inhibiting
effect of melatonin, enables the resynchronization of the wake/sleep
cycle and improves the worker’s quality of sleep and alertness when he
wishes.

Conversely, the use of glasses with a blue light filter
(blueblocker glasses) prevent the light from blocking the melatonin and
allow an easier access to sleep once the work shift ends.

Advice for using light therapy in the case of night working

The time of exposure to light or avoidance of light is very
important, because it will enable the advancement or delay of the
internal biological clock and therefore provoke either an advanced or
delayed phase.

Light therapy : For a person who carries out night
shifts more than 3 nights in a row, we recommend carrying out a light
therapy session before each shift and, if feeling tired, also in the
middle of the shift.

Blueblocker glasses : For all night workers, we
recommend wearing filter glasses between ending the shift and going to
bed. If the person stays in a dark environment during this time (as may
be during winter when the sun has not come up yet), then wearing the
glasses is not necessary.