How to Work Overnight

Recently, I tested a new strategy for working overnight shifts. My coworkers and wife have noticed a dramatic change in my appearance, demeanor and energy. This is how I did it.

Photo by Niklas Hamann on Unsplash

Background

Similar to virtually all mammals, we rise and sleep with the sun. The sun is the principle driver of our physiology, and the root of all life.

Thus, when we are trying to attain optimal health, we must strive to align our life with the solar cycle. This does not only refer to waking and sleeping as the sun does. No. This also means avoiding exposure to certain artificial lights at specific times in the day. For example, most of the blue light we naturally get from the sun occurs mid-day. Which means we should minimize exposure to blue-light early and late in the day.

However, life is complicated.

Sometimes we make decisions that are not in the interest of our personal health. One of those decisions involves overnight shift work.

This is objectively unhealthy.

In this article, we will first review why this is unhealthy - and the impact I’ve observed on my own health in the past. Then, we will discuss new strategies that I’ve implemented since digging deep into chronobiology.