Thank goodness for shift workers. Without them we wouldn't have access to medical help past dinner time, serious road works would block peak traffic and supermarkets would hold scant fresh produce in the mornings.

We rely on certain services to be available around the clock. It goes to follow that the people making these services available – shift workers – should be protected by suitable working conditions. This minimises shift work's potential negative effects.

These can include effects on women's menstrual cycles, fertility and chances of having a miscarriage. For both women and men the irregularity of work hours can result in isolation and make it difficult to have normal relationships. Night shifts can bring about increased headaches, make people feel unwell, and can impact a worker's ability to work well.

Dr Sarah Jay is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Sleep Research at the University of South Australia. She spoke at the People at Work Conference about her background in research into sleep loss and the impact of shift work on workers.

Our bodies, she explained, operate on a circadian rhythm. This means we are programmed to be sleepy at night and more alert in the day.

“Shift workers – particularly those doing nights and early mornings – get less sleep,” she said.

A colleague of Dr Jay's, Dr Jill Dorrian, conducted a study with South Australian nurses which looked at their sleep and work patterns. Each nurse collected data for a month. Shift working nurses recorded struggling to stay awake at work, even while carrying out their work. The nurses in the study, who usually drove themselves home, recorded experiencing extreme drowsiness as a result of the shift work, and night shifts were associated with near accidents.

We know shift workers, in general, don't get as much sleep as people who don't do shift work. Managing the risks associated with resulting sleepiness is the responsibility not just of the individual but of the organisation where the shift-worker is employed.

The issue of sleepiness in the workplace is not one that is going to go away; not while there are services we in the community rely on 24 hours a day. “The idea is not how can we eliminate this from the work place, but how can we manage it better,” said Dr Jay. “There can't just be blanket rules. There's got to be a commitment from management and at an individual level as well.”

Some things we can do to help:

• Learn to recognise symptoms of ‘sleepiness' in yourself and your colleagues
• Make people aware of how sleepy you feel, perhaps tasks can be swapped around for the day to accommodate your sleepiness
• Keep an eye on colleagues and work as part of team
• Maintain good sleep routines

Centre for Sleep Research