Anyone who has traveled has experienced jet lag–that groggy realization that while your day is beginning in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the night you just left in Eugene, Oregon is hardly over. Jet lag is an inconvenient reminder that the body is set to a 24-hour clock, known by scientists as circadian rhythms, from the Latin, “about one day.”

An internal biological clock is fundamental to all living organisms, influencing hormones that play a role in sleep and wakefulness, metabolic rate, and body temperature.

Disruption of circadian rhythms not only affects sleep patterns but also has been found to precipitate mania in people with bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness).

Other types of illnesses also are affected by circadian rhythms; for example, heart attacks occur more frequently in the morning while asthma attacks occur more often at night in those who are deprived of sleep.

Although biological clocks have been the focus of intensive research over the past four decades, only recently have the tools needed to examine the molecular basis of circadian rhythms become available.

Early studies pointed to an area of the brain, the hypothalamus, as the location of the circadian pacemaker in mammals. More recent findings show proteins called cryptochromes, located throughout the body, are also involved in detecting changes in light and setting the body’s clock.

Researchers have found that imposing too early school start times on children requires unrealistic bedtimes to allow adequate time for sleeping.

Early school start times for adolescents are frequently associated with significant sleep deprivation, which can lead to academic, behavioral, and psychological problems, as well as increased risk for accidents and injuries, especially for teenage drivers.

Completing our understanding of biological clockworks will lead to better treatments for diseases affected by circadian rhythm, as well as to methods of coping with disrupted sleep patterns.

I am intimately connected to the joys and perils of Circadian Rhythm Disruption because I work Night Shift–otherwise know as The Grave Yard Shift, as a nurse in a Labor and Delivery unit.

I have been doing this for the past three years plus.

What must you do to survive and take care of yourself if you, too, must embrace the reality of working hours that the majority of people avoid and shun?

1) Commit to taking care of yourself, getting everyone in your household to respect the fact that you must sleep.

2) If you come right home and go to bed, sleep usually comes quickly. So determine to sleep as soon after returning home as you can.

3) People find that if they don’t sleep right away, a kind of mania sets in. A sort of phenomenon occurs where memory fades and where you laid your keys may never resurface in your mind–again!!

4)Discover rest, meditation, loving kindness and a gentle approach with yourself and everyone in your life!

5)Sleep aids may not be helpful, as they tend to create a “hangover” effect. I’ve tried several, but have found that my energy is not in synche afterwards.

6) Make your bed a sanctuary.

7)Think of your bed as a sacred space, where day dreaming can eventually result in changing the world!!

8)Use soothing music, nature sounds, entrainment tapes especially geared for relaxation, and be lulled into a peaceful sleep.

9) Think of sleep as a joyful discipline, and engage in it, knowing that your body, mind and spirit thanks you!!

I must emphasize here that I have chosen to work night shift.

Why?

1) The people I work with on this shift are all in the same sort of painful place as I am–in that we all struggle with sleep, or the lack thereof–and we have compassion for one another.

2) As a result of this compassion, the team effort is unsurpassed.

3) We openly love one another.

4) We have deep and intimate conversations at 3 am and sort out all the world’s problems.

5) We make each other laugh!!

6) We grieve together when a a fellow nightshifter leaves us and goes to day shift.

7) We’re tough!!

We’re flexible!!

9) And no one messes with us!!! Development of self-worth is a pre-requisite to working this shift!

“Circadian Rhythm Disturbance” and all the dire predictions surrounding it, can all be overcome by having a positive and creative attitude about Life and what can be conceived in the imagination and forged in the world.

I may not sleep as much as I used to, but in the process old ruts are gone, my perspective is altered, and an expectant attitude has replaced all preconceived notions that disruptions in my sleep pattern is a negative “problem”.

I now see sleep deprivation as a welcomed alteration in my overall conditioned now zero-conditioned world view.

Afterall, it’s all in how you look at it–not in what science, your mother or even what your doctor tells you!!

So I’ve chosen to seek counsel from within, and Feel Good, no matter what the circadian rhythm specialists say!

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Kate
Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator of the
e-book called “Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover Your Calling
and Destiny.” Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.nursingcareertransformation.com
Check Out Kate’s Blog: http://www.nursehealers.typepad.com
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I like to revisit the topic of night shift from time to time.

I’d never work any other shift, yet you either tolerate it or not.

You adapt to it or you don’t.

We night shifters have honest conversations and we solve all the problems of the nursing profession. Often we are busy but some down time is available at odd hours between three and five a.m.

This is when Truth In Nursing and In Life bubbles up from the deep unconscious mind.

I did a Byron Katie “The Work” session on one of my colleagues at 3 a.m. recently. We worked on her relationship with her mother.

We were naturally sleep deprived.

This made the session all the more powerful.

“My mother doesn’t love me.”

Is this true?

“My mother betrayed me.”

Is this true?

Can you absolutely know for sure that this is true?

“Doctors hate nurses.”

Is this true?

“Nurses hate doctors.”

Is this true?

Relationship issues plague the nursing profession. The term horizontal hostility has been referenced to describe the way nurses treat each other, new nurses coming in, nurses on other shifts, and the very important patient assistants, whom we must never take for granted.

Why all the hostility?

“Nurses eat their young.”

Is this true?

“Nurses are selfless care-givers.”

Is this true?

“Nurses are co-dependents.”

Is this true?

“No 16 year old should ever be pregnant.”

Is this true?

“This family should not be having children.”

Is this true?

Who needs God since you have your opinion?

At 3 a.m. the barriers drop, opinions run rampant.

My tolerance for just about everything falters.

Everyone is an idiot–except everyone in my little group, of course.

But there is a solution: The one second power nap does wonders to clear my consciousness.

Who needs 8 hours of sleep when the one second power nap sweeps my mind, offering a blank slate of renewal?

Nurses are not permitted to sleep on night shift (or any other shift, for that matter! Is this true? Yes!!)

But the one second power nap can be utilized for great benefit and relief.

It takes training and practice,

You must discipline yourself.

For instance, when I find myself drifting off during a conversation with a patient or anyone else, I immediately tell my subconscious mind: I am refreshed by my One Second Power Nap.

Suddenly I am awake, I am there, I am refreshed.

I also prop my left hand on my forehead, place a medical record on the desk, pen poised in my right hand, looking to any passerby as if I am studying a chart.

At these times, I take a 3-5 minute power nap.

Again, I tell my subconscious mind: I am refreshed by this 5 minute power nap.

The trick is never give in to doubt, the great enemy of the mind, by saying in essence to your subconscious mind: I’m tired, I’ll never make it, this shift will never end.

The subconscious mind responds to the commands you give it.

Your reactions or thoughts about any situation or event in your life is in your hands, no one else’s.

Train your mind, not like a cruel task master, but as a benevolent and peaceful warrior, as one whose only job is to conquer what is rightfully yours–your thoughts, emotions and moods.

The literature on these topics is readily available at Amazon, Border’s and Barnes and Noble.

Teachers and coaches are waiting to help you.

Unseen forces, the Angels and Ascended Masters are also waiting.

Ask the angels: Please help me!! Then you state your desired intention.

Often “Please help Me!!” is enough to produce miracles.

Your wish is their delight.

Use the angels and love them.

The world is yours once you learn that you control your destiny by controlling your thoughts.

The one second power nap is an example of how this works.

But it works with every single wish or intention that you have.

Be adventurous and love your thoughts. All of them.

Then seek to weed the garden of your mind, one thought at a time.

Plant beautiful flowers there, beckon the hummingbirds and butterflies.

Bask in the sunlight. Breathe in delicate floral essences.

Your mind is aligned with beauty and God/ess.

This is the mind who wants you to love it.

All you need is love.

Love conquers all.

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Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator of the e-book called “Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover Your Calling and Destiny.” Click here to find out how to order the e-book: http://www.nursingcareertransformation.com
Check Out Kate’s Blog: http://www.nursehealers.typepad.com