In Claire Blackthorn’s previous job working with homeless young people in Southampton, the residential support worker was required to be on site for 24 hours, which would involve a full shift, followed by a period of sleep, followed by another full shift. Sleeping was made extra difficult because due to antisocial behaviour and suicide attempts, which meant she often ended up working for most of the 24 hour period.
It soon began to have a knock on effect to her physical and mental health. “I didn’t have a set pattern so I would really struggle to get to sleep but would then wake up early,” she says. “I would keep getting urine and kidney infections and constantly had a cold. I was just so run down. It affected my emotional health and my anxiety got really bad as well.”
Blackthorn’s story is not unique in the public services. Research by the University of Leeds last year found those working punishingly long hours across the public sector are being left sleep deprived – with many only managing six hours sleep per night. A quarter of those working in social care suffered from dangerously low averages of five hours or less per night.
A study of more than 50,000 NHS nurses found that those working night shifts were more likely to be obese, drink more caffeine, smoke more and have less sleep overall. The General Medical Council recently said that trainee doctors in the NHS are often so sleep-deprived that they are in danger of harming patients. Sleep deprivation also means an increased risk of suffering such conditions as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and depression.
Michael Farquhar, a consultant in sleep medicine at Evelina London Children’s Hospital with a particular interest in the effects of night shifts on healthcare workers, says sleep deprivation needs to be taken much more seriously in society as a whole. “Almost every adult in this country is sleep deprived before you even get to the detrimental effect of long hours and shift work,” he says.
Each year during inductions for new paediatricians, Farquhar provides a sleep physiology lecture, which he has begun providing for others including the British Transport Police. One of his recommendations is that workers should try to have 30-minute power naps in their breaks but he argues there needs to be a culture change across the public services to make this the norm. He says: “There is this blanket idea that we don’t pay people to sleep and it’s wrong. It needs a huge cultural shift.”
There are laws in place to protect employees, but often they are not enforced, Jane Coombs, an occupational health and safety consultant at Working Well Solutions, says. “The law says that when people work night shifts, they have got to be fit to do it. Not many employers know this or actually do the health and risk assessments. Managers often ask employees to opt out of the regulations. We are becoming a 24 hour society so the problems are only going to get worse.”
These days, sleep is one the many things that can be tracked with smartphone apps or wearable fitness trackers. In Hull Sarah Roach, a 999/101 call handler with the police force, thinks it’s crucial to pay attention to your own health and wellbeing. She says: “I monitor my own sleep and stress levels. You need emotional intelligence in this job to be able to de-stress yourself. Basic self care becomes very important.”
She has recently had to move off 12-hour night shifts as she struggled to sleep during the day. “My sleep patterns were so bad I was getting less than an hour of deep sleep a night according to my fitness tracker,” she explains. “I also suffer from IBS and it really flared up badly towards the end of my full night shifts.”
The only solution in the emergency services, which are by their nature 24 hours a day, is more workers as “everyone is pushed to their limits”, Roach says. This conclusion is backed up by trade unions, who also call for betters rights and benefits for those required to work shifts.
A more drastic solution would require a complete societal sea change. The New Economics Foundation, argue that a shorter working week of 21 hours would solve many issues, not least sleep deprivation.
Citing a care home in Sweden, which piloted switching staff from an eight-hour to a six-hour working day for the same wage, Aidan Harper, researcher for the think tank says benefits include increased productivity and a happier workforce. The preliminary results of the trial found the benefits such as these were considerable, not least because the reduced working hours led to a 10% drop in sick leave, with staff reporting they no longer felt exhausted every day.
“As a result of the increased well being, they did more with the reduced hours they had and did more activities with the elderly residents. As a result the residents had an improved quality of care,” Harper says.
For Blackthorn moving to a job with reduced hours and much more regular shift pattern has changed her life. “It has been revolutionary,” she says.
*Some names have been changed.
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