A hard day's night for shift workers

By ANGELA McCARTHY

A bout of pneumonia, followed by tonsillitis, ended four years of graveyard shifts - midnight to 6am - for talkback host Martin Crump, son of late author Barry Crump. He had also developed an aversion to sunlight, become very disoriented after shifts - and his marriage had ended.

"I had to flag it away," says Crump, who is now doing a 5am to 8am breakfast slot.

However, he loved the night work: "I got to talk with people in a way you don't on the fast-moving day shows."

He also enjoyed sharing time with his children by grabbing four hours' sleep during school hours. "But I did bellow at them a lot because I was continually tired and black-out curtains were a must for sleeping. "

Hospice nurse Anne Brown did night shifts for seven years to be at home during the day for her children.

"Even if you're asleep you are with them. That was important to me."

Brown worked 11pm to 7am five nights out of 14. She'd drive home at 7am with the window down, singing and whistling to keep awake, then struggle to walk her youngest daughter to school before falling into bed for five to six hours' sleep.

To ensure sleep, the phone was re-routed to her husband's work, and only routed back for emergencies with the children.

Brown enjoyed the autonomy of night shift work, but felt she wasn't growing on the job. "You miss out on dealing with things such as admissions and planning discharge care."

While she knows many nurses enjoy night shifts, seven years was enough for her. Brown felt continually sleep-deprived, which she describes as feeling constantly hung over.

Night shiftwork fatigue does have the same effect as drinking, says shiftwork consultant Fiona Johnston. She says most shift workers get two to four hours less sleep than daytime colleagues, and that can cause problems. "The ideal is to go home and sleep as soon as possible, but people often have other commitments," she says. "We're hard-wired to be awake during the day and sleep at night, so forcing the biological clock to tick at a different pace can impair quality."

Johnston says signs of fatigue include slow decision-making, poor concentration, mood swings, irritability, poor motivation, inappropriate napping, going onto 'autopilot' and a susceptibility to viruses.

But not all people suffer. "Night owls" have more adaptable body clocks than early risers who find night shifts very difficult, explains Johnston.

It's helpful if management draws up rosters compatible with the body's natural rhythms, says Johnston. Our bodies are inclined to go forward so forward rotational shifts - a day shift follows a late shift, follows a night shift - are least stressful on our body rhythms.

Working 8pm to 11pm Monday to Friday is a purely financial decision for Averil Robinson and her partner. With three children, they can't afford to live off one income, but childcare costs render a day job pointless. "It isn't a good way to sustain a relationship. When my next child starts school, I may be able to reconsider it," says Robinson.

As a clerical worker in a hospital medical laboratory, Robinson registers patient names and tests into the computer before the paperwork goes off to the lab. While only three hours a day, Robinson says it is very tiring.

"I've an eight-month-old baby and working at the other end of the day seems to require more energy."

However, she enjoys being awake and productive while the rest of Auckland sleeps.

Shiftwork