Night work can affect emotional and requires attention to food and sleep; see tips

The increasing adoption of camera monitoring systems and the increased demand for health services during the pandemic increased pressure on public servants who work at night and highlighted a fundamental issue for adapting to this shift: food and nutrition. sleep should be treated with more care to ensure the health of these professionals.

According to neurologist Alan Eckeli, professor of neurology and sleep medicine at the USP School of Medicine in Ribeirão Preto, throughout evolution, human beings were selected to work during the day and rest at night.

“This advent of working at night is very recent from an evolutionary point of view. And that comes at a price. We observed that shift work is more associated with several diseases. It has a higher risk of developing mental illness, such as depression and anxiety, developing obesity , diabetes, hypertension, vascular disease, or even a heart attack”, explains the doctor.

In general, shift work in the public service occurs more in the areas of health and safety. In the city of Rio de Janeiro, for example, there are 17,165 night workers, working for direct and indirect administration bodies and Social Health Organizations. In direct administration, there are 3,944 in the areas of health and social assistance, which corresponds to 23%.

Away from the capitals, there are also a large number of night workers. In the City Hall of Guarujá, on the coast of São Paulo, for example, there are 631 public servants working at night. Of these, 70% are linked to the departments of Health, Defense and Social Living and Development and Social Assistance.

In Greater São Paulo, the city of Suzano inaugurated in May 2019 an Integrated Security Center at the administration’s headquarters. It is a space that has the control of 52 cameras, with 24-hour monitoring.

“The center was set up with the objective of helping not only in the criminal index, but also in all sectors of the city hall, interconnecting the city’s agencies. We currently have 36 agents in total, of which 12 work at night. shift is 12 for 36 hours”, says Elias Marques, Suzano’s Secretary of Citizen Security.

Municipal guard Sidnei Barreto Castilho, 45, is one of the servers who work night shifts at the Suzano plant. She has been with the corporation for 20 years, says she has only been working nights for two years, but already feels adapted.

“I don’t feel the effects of the night. I had advice from people who were more used to working at night, so I acquired some habits. For example, before going to work, I take a break in the afternoon at home. This helps a lot. “

And the regularity of sleep is one of the most complicated factors for those who work at night. According to physician Alan Eckeli, it is up to the individual himself to determine his sleep quality, understanding how much he should sleep in order to be well the next day.

“There is a great diversity among human beings in terms of total sleep time. Most individuals will need seven to eight hours, but some people need six hours, five hours. Others need more hours. Each person must reflect about how many hours of sleep he gets to feel good during the day.”

It is also necessary to be careful with naps during the day, especially for those who have insomnia. “These periods will decrease what we call the need for sleep, causing you to have a greater latency for sleep onset”, says Eckeli.

However, for some people, the amount of sleep during the day can be a recovery factor, according to the doctor. “These are people who suddenly have a lower quality of sleep at night, and then, at some point during the day, usually after lunch, they will have shorter periods of sleep recovering from this lack of sleep.”

Another point that should be looked at very carefully is food. Regardless of how the work schedule is organized, it is important to have a routine.

“You need to have a well-structured routine, not to be that thing of coming home and saying ‘I’m too tired, I’m not going to eat anything today'”, says nutritionist Annie Bello, assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro .

“You should also avoid many compensations. Night work often makes the person more susceptible to foods such as fast food at dawn, end up ordering a pizza on duty, for example. You have to be very careful not to make too many exceptions with this consumption of practical foods in the morning.”

According to the nutritionist, night work disrupts the person’s circadian rhythm. In other words, the mechanism that regulates day and night for humans is a little out of control.

“The hormones that are produced in our body are regulated by sunlight and the timing of our meals. As much as a person has a good diet, working at night can impact body weight. That’s why it’s important to be extra careful when meal quality, because the tendency is for weight gain to occur because of this unregulated sleep”, says Annie Bello.

In addition to care with food and sleep quality, it is important that the person who works at night pays attention to their social life. “A lot of people do the opposite of those who work at night, so they end up distancing themselves from their colleagues. You have to be careful with that so you don’t isolate yourself. Take some time to maintain these social relationships”, says Vanessa Cepellos, professor of people management at FGV-EAESP.

She also highlights the importance of psychological support from the employer, especially with those employees who face emotionally heavy work, as is precisely the case with health and safety employees.

“The employer cannot forget the issues that affect these night workers. Due to the nature of the work, this server even ends up dealing with death. These are complicated situations in themselves. So, you must plan a preventive orientation to the health of these servers, with lectures , psychological support, to support this professional.”