Shift work & erratic sleep patterns doesn't just make ADD symptoms worse

[Patte Rosebank]

When you don’t get enough sleep, or if your sleep/wake cycles are erratic, it will mess up your circadian rhythm (the internal clock that regulates all of your body’s systems).

That will not only make your ADD symptoms worse, but will increase your risk of heart attack & stroke.

All the more reason to discuss your sleeplessness with your doctor.

And for shift workers to have one shift & stick to it, instead of having to switch every few weeks.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2012/07/26/shift_workers_at_an_increased_risk_of_heart_attack_and_stroke_and_should_be_screened.html

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[Fabulous]

So so so important.  When I look back to my twenties, and wish I could give my twenty-something self advice, this is one main piece. Get on a regular sleep schedule and stick to it.

Too late. Oh well. But at least I do it now. Not too late for someone else who might read your post @Larynxa, I hope.

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[Patte Rosebank]

What’s really scary is that the jobs which are truly life-and-death, in which you hold the lives of people (often many people) in your hands, are all shift-work.

Doctors & nurses, police, firefighters, paramedics, pilots, railway engineers, bus drivers—they all work day shifts for a while, then switch to night shifts.  Add to that the fact that the emergency services have a higher percentage of people with ADHD, and you realize why shift work increases the risk of mistakes.

If workers were assigned permanently to either the day or the night shift, it would reduce the danger.  You’ll never remove it completely, because humans were meant to sleep at night, but we now live in a 24-hour world.

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[Fabulous]

OMG I never thought about that before.

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[Patte Rosebank]

Even scarier:  These industries have only recently begun looking at the dangers of shift-work.

The airline and tour bus industries had to start doing it, after several deadly crashes that were ruled to have been caused by sleep-deprived people at the controls.

I suspect it will take some similarly high-profile, deadly cases to convince emergency service providers to take sleep-deprivation seriously.

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