Doing shiftwork not only plays havoc with your social life, it can affect your health, writes Iva Pocock
For a small but significant number of Irish employees "Did you have a good night at work?" is a more accurate greeting than "How was your day?".
About 7 per cent of all Irish shift workers, who make up almost a fifth of the total workforce, regularly arrive home when most of us are just starting our day.
This proportion of permanent night shift workers is close to the European average, according to a 2000 survey carried out by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Working and Living Conditions.
However, Irish shift workers work almost three times as many alternating day and night shifts compared with their European counterparts. Almost a fifth of those who work shifts are on a rotating schedule, sometimes working when most of us are tucked up in bed, other times working when their natural body rhythm would prefer - in the daytime.
Only Portugal has more employees rostered on these alternating shifts. When it comes to split shifts (with a break of at least four hours in between) Ireland ranks highest in Europe. Almost 15 per cent of shift workers do these hours compared with the European average of 5.6 per cent.
"Every worker would prefer to be on day work because of social concerns and the difficulties in catching up on sleep," says Sylvester Cronin, health and safety officer with Siptu.
Studies show at least three-quarters of those working shifts experience difficulty sleeping and that daytime sleep of rotating shift workers is one to four hours shorter than night sleep. Research also suggests permanent night workers sleep better than people who work an alternating roster.
"Night workers need to be very disciplined and not end up staying up when they should be catching up on sleep," says Cronin. "There is often a temptation to do things during the daytime, but this is inadvisable."
A lot of night shift workers have problems with gastroenteritis because they are not eating properly: stomach ulcers occur in up to 15 per cent of employees who work rotating night shifts and gastritis and heartburn are also more common.
"Eating a heavy meal after a shift before going to sleep is not good," says Cronin who advises that people eat light food during their shift to keep energy levels up.
Studies show a higher incidence of coronary heart disease among male shift workers, and research published in 2001 suggests that women who regularly work nights may be up to 70 per cent more likely to develop cancer than women who work in day jobs.
How some night shift workers cope:
Technician
"It does bugger up your sleep patterns. You tend to spend a lot of your time exhausted," says David Lynch, a technician with Hewlett Packard, who has been working rotating shifts for five years. "There's a lot of studies and none of them reckon it's good for you."
At the moment he's on a four-shift 12-hour cycle (from 8pm to 8am) which runs through the weekends. Before a night shift begins you "usually try and take it handy and go to bed at three or four o'clock for a few hours. You force yourself to go to sleep to give yourself a bit of a buffer." Some manage to sleep, especially the younger lads, but the older you are the more difficult it is, says David.
"I don't mind it that much," he says. "The only problem is you tend to make the best of your days off and end up working on them. You don't have much choice. They go [the factory] 24 seven so you have to work shifts. You have 33 per cent more on your pay on this cycle," he says.
Ambulance driver
Each month John works seven day shifts and seven night shifts, unless he does overtime, which nearly everyone does, although not beyond 48 hours a week.
For example, if he works all day Thursday he could then have to work Friday and Saturday night, with no break until the following Thursday. He says his social life is non-existent really. "When I'm off it takes a day or two to recover and just to get your body clock set back up properly."
As a result, the job takes its toll on relationships. A girlfriend once gave him an ultimatum - her or the job. He chose the job because he loves it. For some of his colleagues with families the job is particularly difficult. In his opinion, the work definitely affects drivers' health: "In the winter time there'd be a lot of people prone to chest infections. Some have ulcers and hernias..."
John's name has been changed.
Former video shop worker
Pearse Tolan from Artane, Dublin worked nightshifts for 15 years, two years with Jason's snooker hall in Ranelagh, 13 years with Xtravision in Rathmines. In the video shop he worked five nights in a row, Sunday to Thursday. "I'd go straight home to bed after leaving at 8am and then get up at about 1pm or 2pm. The kids would come home and I'd be there for them," he says. This facilitated family life as his wife Deirdre worked nine to five.
In the evening Pearse would go back to bed at about 6pm until 10pm, when he'd get up and have dinner. During the night he'd normally just drink tea or coffee but might get a burger. "There's an unwritten camaraderie between night people because you all work the same unsocial hours," he says.
Weekends were off so on arriving home from work on Friday morning he'd head to the golf course and stay awake right through until 10pm. "That'd kick my clock back into a semi-normal state and I'd get a good night's sleep." He reckons the years working night shifts didn't affect his health, although it took him about six months to get the night shifts out of his body. He's now driving a taxi during the day, starting at 5.30am. The nightwork was friendlier, he says. "Everyone is in too much of a rush in the day."
Doctor in accident and emergency
Tom works one week of nights every seven weeks, starting at 10pm and finishing at 8.30am. He tends to laze around for the day before he starts the nights. "For the first night I am going to be absolutely exhausted at 4am whatever I do."
He leaves at 9am and drives home through rush-hour traffic arriving exhausted and goes to bed straight away. "I don't feel hungry but I often feel nauseated," he says. "You can be very very tired by Wednesday morning," he says, although as the week goes on "you're getting into the swing of it".
He says: "You find yourself falling asleep at traffic lights. There's a big roundabout by the hospital and one colleague crashed on it coming off nights."
Tom is not his real name.