About
Thriving on Shift work will provide you with information on shift work including the advantages and disadvantages of shift work, how to design the ‘ideal’ shift and the common negative symptoms often associated with working shifts. The focus is then placed on strategies for staying healthy. This includes material on the impact of different foods and drinks, exercises and ways to maintain positive relationships regardless of the shifts that are worked.
Key Learning Objectives
- Learn how to plan the ideal shifts for your individual circumstances
- Gain an understanding of factors that impact on sleep for shift workers
- Understand the impact of diet and exercise on sleep patterns
- Learn how to programme their “internal alarm clock” for better sleep patterns
Who Should Attend?
Anyone involved in, or responsible for those who are involved in shift work
Training Methodology
The format combines formal presentations and group discussions with a number of individual and small group activities. The workshop is designed to be interactive and fun, while still teaching practical skills and strategies.
Outline
Part 1: Lifestyle Factors
What is shift work?
- What is a “Standard Work Week?
- Defining shift work
- Who works shift work?
The positives and negatives of shift work
- Common negative factors associated with shift work
- The benefits of shift work
- Why do some workers prefer shift work?
Designing the ideal shift
- What shift is best for your current situation?
- The 25 hour body clock concept
- Advantages and disadvantages of permanent shifts
- Fast vs Slow changing shifts (e.g. 2 days, 2 nights, 4 days off; versus 1 week days, 1 week nights, 2 weeks off)
- Exercise: In small groups participants discuss the best and worst shifts they have worked and identify the factors that generated the positive and negative feelings
How to avoid common negative symptoms of shift work
- Psychological impact of customers’ expectations on their perception of the level of service they receive
- Why does shift work disrupt sleep patterns
- Minimising digestive problems associated with shift work
- How can diet and exercise counter common shift work symptoms
The importance of diet and shift work
- The key components of a healthy diet
- Why are regular eating patterns important for shift workers
- The challenges people often face when they set out to control their diet
The impact of exercise on shift work
- The advantages of aerobic exercise for shift workers
- The three components of fitness
- Why do fit people find stress less tiring?
- Key components of a safe and effective exercise programme
- Strategies for maintaining and improving fitness when working shifts
Maintaining positive relationships when working shifts
- Why private life planning is essential for shift workers
- How to ensure you get quality time with your partner when working shifts
- Strategies for addressing the concerns of others when you are working nights
- Maintaining sports, hobbies, artistic pursuits, etc. when working shifts
Part 2: Sleep Management
Introduction to sleep management
- The purpose of sleep and how this is still argued over
- Why we don’t need to learn to sleep – but how many people accidentally learn how not to sleep!
- Who experiences sleep problems (for shift workers and non-shift workers)?
Sleep Assessment
Complete a brief sleep assessment questionnaire and identify any key sleep problem areas (e.g. problems getting off to sleep, problems staying asleep once asleep, problems sleeping through noise, etc.)
Programming your subconscious to overcome sleep problems
- Differences between ‘initial’ causes of sleep problems and ‘ongoing’ causes
- Common initial causes of sleep problems
- How our subconscious controls our sleep process
- Differences in impact on our subconscious between the Future and Fact messages that we give ourselves
- How do Fact messages develop an expectation to sleep or not to sleep; and how this expectation will override tiredness, comfort, noises, etc.
What do we need to do to get sleep?
- Three criteria normally required to trigger the sleep process
- How our expectation to sleep can end up overriding the three criteria
- How to develop an expectation to fall asleep quickly, stay asleep once asleep and wake feeling refreshed
- Why trying to force ourselves to sleep will rapidly make our sleep problems worse!
- Getting back to seep if You Happen to Wake
Techniques for programming your subconscious to sleep well
- The affirmation process and how it applies to sleep
- How to use the visualisation process to reprogramme our subconscious so that we sleep well
- How to overcome the ‘voice in our head’ that keeps telling us how badly we sleep when we first start reprogramming our subconscious to sleep well
Programming your internal alarm clock
- How our subconscious runs several different clocks
- How can your internal alarm clock cause problems when shift working
- How to programme your internal alarm clock to wake you at the time you want to wake
Sleeping Through Noise and Daylight
- How our subconscious monitors our ‘senses’ when we are asleep
- The checklist that our subconscious applies when it hears a noise to decide to let us sleep on or wake us up
- Why humans can wake to the slightest sound or sleep through very loud noises
- How to programme your subconscious to sleep through all safe noises, no matter how loud they are, but also to wake instantly to any unsafe sounds
- Why humans are naturally good at sleeping in daylight
- How to programme your subconscious so that you sleep well in daylight
Traditional Advice for Overcoming Sleep Problems
- Understanding the concept of sleep hygiene factors
- The importance of maintaining regular times to go to bed and sleep – even when you work shifts
- The impact of food and drinks on our sleep patterns
- Why caffeine has a marked impact on some people’s sleep patterns but not on others
- The impact of herbal foods and drinks on sleep
Just Prior to Sleep Routines
- The concept of just prior to sleep routines
- How our routines become signals to the brain for it to trigger the sleep process
- The importance of maintaining some just prior to sleep routines when you work shifts or travel
Facilitator
Ross Gilmour
Ross Gilmour is a qualified and registeredNew Zealandpsychologist. Ross is the Managing Director of Gilmour Consulting, an organisational psychology consultancy based inLower Hutt.
Prior to going into private practice in 1981 Ross spent four years working in the personnel area and six and a half years as a psychologist with the Department of Justice. In the first few years of private practice Ross provided clinical/counselling services for individuals and small groups. This included working with people who were experiencing stress and anxiety disorders, sleep problems, depression, relationship problems, etc.
Ross then moved his focus to Organisational Psychology and now spends the majority of his time conducting training seminars in the ‘people skills’ area. These include stress management, time management, team building, self-motivation, supervisory and management skills, managing change, and interviewing skills. Ross also regularly provides service to organisations in the areas of managing organisational stress, conflict management, change management, shift work and its impact on performance and other specialist areas such as safety and sleep management. His clients include many government departments, multi-national corporations and a range ofNew Zealandand international businesses both large and small.
Ross Gilmour is also facilitating:
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