Working New Hours – Resetting Your Rest Routine

Perhaps it’s a new job entirely, shift work or a similar role but at a different time of day or, as the case may be, night. Whatever the reason for your new working hours, adjusting to a new sleep schedule can be take a little while to get used to.

So how can you manage your sleep to ensure that your new working hours don’t affect your professional performance? It’s a topic we hope to shed a little light on in the following post.

Bit by Bit

The body doesn’t handle huge changes in sleep routine very well and can result in related issues , such as jetlag.

For this reason, you need to prepare for your new schedule in the weeks or days leading up to it.

If you know in advance that your work hours are changing, adjust your sleep schedule accordingly. Every night, gradually fall into line with your new hours by 15 minutes at a time. At this rate, if your new job requires you to wake up two hours earlier than usual, you will need eight days to adjust.

However, if you aren’t afforded the luxury of advanced notice, you may need to make a quicker adjustment. This can cause severe tiredness and drowsiness during the day; you can try to combat this with short naps of around 20 minutes but no more than 40. However, it’s important to avoid napping too close to bedtime.

Environmental Cues

Naturally, our bodies take cues from timing to prepare us for sleep. However, when we need to override our biological clock, environmental cues can be used to help to inform our body when to sleep.

In other words, routine is key:

• Eat a fixed time before bed and avoid anything too heavy within two hours of hitting the hay
• In the hours before you go to sleep, try to incorporate relaxing activities into your routine, like light reading and meditative breathing techniques
• If you’re new hours mean that you need to sleep during the day, try to avoid direct sunlight before bed. Wear sunglasses if you have to go outside and keep your room dark.

It is also vital to ensure that you have a bed that’s right for you to ensure that you’re able to optimise your sleeping hours.

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