The Night Shift

I was driving home early this morning, headlights still dancing on the motorway, when I heard a Radio 2 debate: “Are night shifts bad for you?” It made me smile, a simple question, but one that lives in the bones of every doctor, nurse, carer, and parent who’s ever been awake when the rest of the world is asleep.

I’ve worked plenty of night shifts in my time. I actually quite like them — there’s something strangely peaceful about the small hours in a hospital. The corridors quieten, the chaos softens. There’s a calm, watchful kind of energy. But I won’t pretend they don’t take their toll. The body clock doesn’t appreciate creative scheduling. You learn to live on borrowed hours half-awake, half-dreaming........while your body quietly keeps score.

As a single mum, the night shift was my lifeline. The kids would go to their dad’s, and I’d head to work. It made sense , I could provide, balance, cope. But it also blurred the line between living and existing. Your daylight becomes everyone else’s bedtime, your meals go out of sync, and your mind doesn’t know when to switch off.

It made me think......What about the other night shift that we usually don't talk about. The one worked at home, in pyjamas, with a crying baby on your shoulder and a cold cup of tea on the bedside table. Those sleepless nights of early parenthood can feel endless. There is no handover at 7 a.m., or “well done, team.” Just another morning, and a tired body trying to keep up.

We talk about the physical strain of shift work; blood pressure, heart health, diabetes, but we rarely talk about the emotional fatigue of never really resting.

The quiet unravelling that happens when your nights stop being yours.

And yet, people do it, night after night, shift after shift, in hospitals, homes, care settings, and kitchens lit only by the fridge light. Maybe the secret is not to avoid the night shift, because it's "bad for you" but in learning to forgive ourselves for the toll it takes. Its not a weakness, after all, it's just another part of being human.

If you’ve ever worked the nightshift, you’re in good company.......