Rotating Shifts Can Kill

Rotating schedules can be deadly, according to a study by Harvard researchers and survey results from the National Sleep Foundation. Risks go beyond sleepiness and inattention, which can cause car crashes and dangerous errors. Extended periods of shift work also raise the risk of heart attacks, cancer, ulcers, insulin resistance and more. As most around-the-clock workers know, rotating from shift to shift can also make you irritable and impatient.

These facts don't make 24-hour employee scheduling any less necessary, however. Industries that require this kind of staffing include emergency services such as police stations, health-care services such as hospitals, air traffic control departments and factory workers. For many, benefits of rotating shifts include increased flexibility, more time with family and shorter workweeks. This kind of scheduling also helps employers in many ways, but it could decrease productivity by 20 percent, according to the Sleep Foundation survey.

You can't solve the problems inherent to rotating shifts, but you can minimize harm with a few simple steps. Studies dedicated to this topic have been conducted for the last 30 years, so best-practices models are easy to find. At TopTenREVIEWS, we've compiled a list of the most effective strategies to save your time, your business and even your life:

Rotate Clockwise
Physiologically and psychology, its best for your employees to change their schedules rarely. If that isn't possible for your business, doctors recommend advancing shifts such that employees get maximum time off between work periods. For example, you should move daytime shifts to evening shifts, and then to night shifts, in that order. This procedure is highly likely to improve alertness throughout each shift.

Advance the Schedule Every Two Weeks
Beyond planning advances carefully, researchers advise employers not to move schedules forward more than once every two weeks. This will minimize changes in staffer sleep cycles. It represents a way of working with natural circadian rhythms. One police department that adopted this policy saw arrest rates go up and officer-involved crashes go down month after month.

Provide Bright lights
It's a fact that sunlight is important in helping humans regulate sleeping and waking. An article published in "Science" in the late 1980s advanced our knowledge of this light relationship by showing that artificial bright lights "reset the human circadian pacemaker independent of the sleep-wake cycle." In English, that means that your sleeping and waking cycle doesn't have to match the one dictated by the sun. For employers, we recommend providing bright lights, especially for swing and graveyard shifts. If you can't put bright lights in every work area, we recommend including them in break rooms.

Allow Short Siestas
Increasingly, businesses are following the lead of the Spanish in allowing short naps during extended shifts. This works best if the naps are 15 to 20 minutes long. Longer naps can initiate REM sleep, which can make waking up difficult. If you aren't sold on the idea, think of your Folgers budget. Research shows that power naps are more effective than coffee for improving cognition. Furthermore, catnaps won't give you the jitters.

Get Medical Help
Some people adopt new sleep cycles quickly, and these workers are likely to find jobs in industries such as health care and air traffic control, which require these rapid changes. Other workers, though, have trouble adjusting. If you can't manage without rotating shifts for these staffers, you might need to get medical help for them. Shift Work Sleep Disorder can be treated by melatonin supplements and alertness medications, among other things. Regular exercise can also bring benefits, as can healthy eating habits and avoidance of stimulants and alcohol.

Rotating Schedules aren't going away, but the dangers associated with them are manageable. Turn to medical research and industry best practices for tips and tricks. Then, keep this issue in mind and be sure to talk with your employees to discover whether your changes are working. Your business will be most successful with employees who are alert and healthy.

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