Nutrition for Night Shift Workers

To everyone, a typical schedule is to eat breakfast at 7 AM, dinner around 12, and supper around 6 PM. Those who do not fit into this typical schedule can sometimes feel at a loss when it comes to coordinating meals.

First of all, you should know that if you work at night, it is normal that your appetite might not be as strong, or on the contrary, that nothing can calm your hunger. Indeed, the two hormones regulating appetite (leptin and ghrelin) are secreted at night during the deep sleep cycles. One is responsible for hunger signals, while the other regulates satiety.

Depending on the situation you’re in, it is important to use strategies in order to provide your body with the energy it needs without overfeeding it.

The key to success is to eat regularly: just like people who work during the day, you should eat every 3 or 4 hours. This means three meals, and if necessary, nutritive snacks in-between (a fruit with a few nuts, yogurt, a granola bar with a fruit, raw vegetables with cheese, etc.).

If you have the tendency to be constantly hungry, maximize your consumption of raw vegetables and vegetable soup, and drink lots of water. With your snacks, drink green tea, herbal tea, or warm water with lemon juice: drinking warm liquid will help you feel satisfied.

If, on the contrary, you have a hard time eating anything, choose foods that you enjoy and that are not hard to digest: hearty meal-soups, casserole dishes, smoothies, or pasta, for example. You could also split your meals, and eat every 3 hours (for example, half a sandwich with a soup at 11 PM, and the other half with a fruit or raw vegetables at 2 AM).

Here are a few examples of meal schedules:

And you, what are your tips for night workers?

Nutrition for Night Shift Workers is a post from Nautilus Plus. The Nautilus Plus blog aims to help people in their journey to fitness through articles on training, nutrition, motivation, exercise and healthy recipes.
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