according to a recent article many nurses go without sleep for 24-hours in order to adjust to their late-night shifts. not only is this ineffective it’s also potentially harmful. when you don’t sleep for that long your sleep/wake patterns end up out of sync with your biological clock. this leads to a misalignment of your circadian rhythms. this kind of circadian misalignment has been associated with increased risk of developing cardiovascular metabolic and gastrointestinal disorders. we have a set of internal rhythms that repeat roughly every 24 hours: the sleep-wake cycle hunger the ebb and flow of hormones the rise and fall of body temperature and other subtle rhythms that mesh with the 24-hour solar day. in fact a lot of people’s sleep problems can be attributed to an internal clock that has become out of sync or mismatched with the day-night cycle. sometimes your body’s clock just doesn’t quite match up with society’s 24-hour clock. many nurses work 12-hour shifts and if a nurse works three night shifts in a row and then has a few days off that means he or she is returning to a normal sleep schedule on days off and repeating the 24-hours of no sleep preparation a few times a week. nurses aren’t alone in the struggle to work odd-hour shifts. according to u. s. labor statistics about 20 percent of the workforce or about 19. 7 million u. s. workers are early risers who begin work between 2:30 a. m. and 7 a. m. try napping if you can (and if it is safe to do so) and try to stick to as regular a sleep routine as possible.
i’m a nurse who works late-night shifts. is long-term sleep deprivation harmful?