Nursing Research: Night Shift And Nursing Health

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Night Shift and Nursing Health Working around the clock is as old as the earth itself. The reasons people stay up at night varies, but a few historical examples would be to help babies enter the world, possibly protect livestock from predators, and even to keep watch over kingdoms from possible enemies. Today people stay awake for the same reasons; however, the difference with then and now is the greater insistence on the amounts of people working in a world that never sleeps. Harrison, Y., Horne, J., Landrigan, CP., Rothschild, JM., Cronin, JW., Kaushal, R., Burdick, E., Katz, JT., Lilly, CM., Stone, PH., Lockley, SW., Bates, DW., Czeisler, CA., (2004) make a strong point that our modern societies have greater expectations and higher demands and in order to reach those demands people are cutting back on sleep. In order to keep factories humming, to keep society safe, and to cater to 24 hour economy, twenty percent of American workers are part of a group …show more content…

Tufts University Diet & Nutrition (1996) says that full adaptation to a night schedule is very rare because the body’s internal circadian rhythms change slowly, whereas the night shift workers’ sleep—wake and light—dark cycles vary across the work week. Nutrition (1996) gives examples that shift workers may sleep during the day after a night shift, or stay awake during the bright light of day-time for social or other reasons. The circadian pacemaker cannot change with an inconsistent light and dark cycle and maintain the synchronization between circadian physiology and sleep—wake behavior (Nutrition 1996). Working a nighttime schedule creates an unending conflict between the body’s natural internal clock and the demands of sleep and work. It is in direct conflict with our internal physiology to sleep during the day and stay awake during the night with the same mental capacity and ability as is done when sleep and wake happen during the normal circadian

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