Thursday, 8 January 2026

8/365: The War On Sleep

In the deep, cold, midwinter, there is no deeper sleep than can be had when coming off a night shift. The embrace of the warm bed engulfs me at 7am and before I know it I'm out like a light. 

I have read that the switch between night shifts and day shifts (what I currently do) seriously disrupts our hormonal balances, circadian rhythm, and even increases risks of terminal conditions such as cancer and our overall life expectancy. Night shifts take a serious toll on the body and it is perhaps no wonder the sleeps I have after them are deeper than anything else I've ever experienced. 

It's strange because I remember back in the days of when I used to drink back in university, coming back home at 4 or 5am after having been awake for 32 hours... even then my sleeps were never as deep as they are following a night shift. 

They do take "it" out of me though. No matter how much I sleep after a nightshift I feel the draining energy of tiredness in my bones in perpetuity. My rest days are spent trying to recover for the next shift in a few days time. I try my best, but the war on sleep feels never ending. 

Like Bush in Iraq, I am searching for weapons of sleep destruction but all I've found is a tired, dishevelled man in a deep hole. 

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8/365: The War On Sleep

In the deep, cold, midwinter, there is no deeper sleep than can be had when coming off a night shift. The embrace of the warm bed engulfs me...