Shift Work Sleep Disorder

By Leeanne Utiger
If you are a shift worker, you may suffer from a condition called Shift Work Sleep Disorder. There are symptoms you can recognise that may help you diagnose yourself with having a shift work sleep disorder.

These symtoms of such a disorder can vary, but in most cases, some prominent symptoms include, excessive tiredness or sleepiness and chronic insomnia. If you suffer from either one of these symptoms, and you are a shift worker, then it is highly likely that you suffer from shift work sleep disorder.

It is thought that most people who work shifts at their work, often have this shift work sleep disorder mainly after working a continual flow of night shifts. It is hard for the body to adjust to varying work and sleep patterns. When you are growing from a child into an adult, your body is trained to 'think' and become accustomed to sleeping at night. However when you take on a job that ahs shift work hours that you must cover and work through, the body I shocked into a new routine and at times either can not cope, or takes what seems like forever to adjust to.

Other symptoms that you may suffer from, which could indicate that you do in fact suffer from shift work sleep disorder are: constant headaches, and difficulty with concentration, with maybe a low attention span.

Shift sleep disorders are caused by an interruption to the 'normal' sleep pattern. Because of this, shift work sleep disorders can also cause gastro intestinal problems or digestive problems with your body. In saying that if you do suffer from shift work sleep disorder you may need to make an appointment with your local doctor to confirm there is nothing else wrong with you.

Some companies now supply training manuals on how to decrease the amount of shift work sleep disorders that a worker may suffer. These manuals will be very helpful for you to read up on if you do work shirt work hours. I suggest you make an enquiry with your employer to see if he or she has such a manual within your place of work.

Other topics you can read up on are articles about chronic fatigue and fatigue management. If you are seriously concerned about whether you do have shift work sleep disorder, it is wise to visit your local doctor regardless and he or she will be able to once again advise you on what to do and how to manage fatigue due to the shift hours you do at your work.

A simple way of relieving some of the symptoms of shift work sleep disorder and to relieve the condition of shift work sleep disorder itself, is to on getting home from your place of work, take an hour out to relax and settle back into the home environment and to simply unwind out of work mode. Once you have done this, take yourself to bed and make sure you get a good sleep. It may take a while for your body to adjust to the new hourly routine of sleep, but it will help. Once your body gets used to your new sleeping hours, it will in fact adjust and begin to relax and energise you more. Do not stress over things that my need doing around the house. Your sleep is far more important at this stage if you want to be able to keep well and have enough energy to get through each day and night.

If you have a partner, rely more on him or her. Let him or her help you more with things that need to be done on a daily basis. This will help relieve any stress that you may suffer due to working shift work and therefore causing shift work sleep disorder. The more you compromise and let other people help you, the healthier you will be and the less likely you are to suffer from shift work sleep disorder.

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