"Circadian Rhythms: The Enemy of Shiftwork?"

As we said yesterday, human body functions follow a daily rhythm, or 24-hour cycle, known as circadian rhythm. This internal clock regulates sleeping, waking, digestion, secretion of adrenaline, body temperature, blood pressure, and many other body functions.

Human behavior is also affected by this 24-hour cycle.

These rhythmical processes are coordinated to allow for high activity during the day and low activity at night. For example, body temperature is highest during the afternoon and early evening, and lowest in the early morning, just before sunrise.

This rhythm is upset when shiftworkers turn their schedules upside down. When circadian rhythms are disrupted by working at night, they can get out of sync with other body rhythms and activity patterns. This can make workers feel tired and disoriented.

Since these rhythms affect so many different systems, the effects can spill into nearly every part of life—including work and home life.

Some rhythms can adapt in 2 or 3 days when an employee starts working shifts. Others may take much longer. Furthermore, people adapt to changes in work schedules at different rates.

But permanent change of circadian rhythms rarely occurs for most people because on days off they often go back to a normal day schedule, keeping the system in a constant state of change.

---

No time to write safety meeting materials? You don’t need to with the 50 prewritten safety meeting modules in BLR’s Safety Meeting Repros program. All meetings are ready to use, right out of the box. Try it completely at our expense! PLUS get a free report! Get the details.

---

Safety and Health Effects

The effects of disrupting circadian rhythms can impact both a worker’s safety and health. 

Workers may be less likely to respond quickly and appropriately to emergencies and more likely to have accidents and injuries.

Disruption of circadian rhythms brought about by shiftwork can also affect some preexisting medical conditions. For example, shiftwork can sometimes interfere with the treatment of certain diseases and medical conditions.

A few workers have become physically ill when switched to night shift. They may vomit, suffer light-headedness, or even have seizures. Fortunately, such extreme reactions are very rare.

But just to be safe, before moving to a night or rotating shift, workers should check with their doctor if they are being treated or taking medication for a preexisting medical condition.

---

Examine Safety Meeting Repros completely at our expense. Send no money. Take no risk. Get a FREE report. Get more info.

---

Training for Under $6 a Session

To keep shiftworkers safe and healthy on the job, you have to make sure they’re welled trained. But scheduling training for shiftworkers is not always so easy.

Now there a way to make sure nobody misses required safety training—shiftworkers or dayworkers.

Our Safety Meeting Repros provides you with 50 completely turnkey safety meeting modules, each responsive to a key OSHA regulation, with trainee materials in reproducible form.

A supervisor on any shift can easily run the training session. All the trainer has to do is check off the outline items as he or she proceeds through the meeting, and trainees won’t miss a single point of importance. Then the trainer can follow up with the fully prepared quiz (with instantly available answers) and illustrated handouts that also come with each lesson.

Presto! You’ve completed a full training cycle, with little more work than running a copier, at a cost equivalent of under $6 a session.

We don’t think you can appreciate how much this program can ease your training task without looking it over. We invite you to do so at no cost (we’ll even pay any return shipping) and no risk. Here’s how you can arrange a trial run, at our expense.