Is working night shifts bad for you?

I started doing nights in 1980. There was nothing open back then. Monday to Thursday, all of society went to bed at midnight. Even the television shut down. In those days you worked shifts on a four-week cycle. In the space of five days, your whole system and body clock was completely the wrong way round. I've had doctors say you shouldn't eat at night, but I always took some sandwiches in or stopped by the kebab shop or the local fried chicken place.

It is physically demanding to try to stay awake all night. You are tired during the day and tired during the night. As I got older, I found it even more difficult to stay awake. By the time you get to the Monday, you're a zombie. You forget appointments, you have to write everything down. The quieter nights were harder, the Guardian reports. Unfortunately, you don't get a chance to sleep during the day. The rest of society doesn't expect you to sleep. In summer, everyone's out in the garden, cutting grass; you've got the curtains pulled and the earplugs in. On the flip side, I loved night duty. The station was ours; no hustle and bustle in the workplace. You could get things done. But I packed it in because it was having an impact on my health. The biggest problem was digestive - I had loads of stomach upsets. It wasn't so much the heart problems or breathlessness the report mentions: I got checked for that, along with other colleagues. After 15 years of working nights, it was a bit of a relief when I stopped. I could almost feel my system saying: "Thank God that's over, it's back to normal now." PC

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