Backseat Positivity
"Able to make serious topics lighthearted and fun - I even laughed at some points!"
Get your bi-weekly dose of positivity in this fun podcast with Dr Dawn Barlow, who helps you navigate all of the weird/best/worst parts of life!
Dawn takes you on the self-improvement journey you didn't realise you needed... Bought to you by a doctor who hasn't had life as sweet as many of her comrades. She knows firsthand just how rubbish life can be, yet has managed to turn her life around for the better!
From relationships to mental health to happiness, make sure you buckle up twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays) the join her and her guests for candid self-improvement. Don't forget of the course, the "weird thoughts" segment, where Dawn and her guests share weird thoughts from their lives.
Dawn says:
Sometimes life reminds me of being in a washing machine. It's a bit spinny and turbulent for a while, but then it stops and gives you a little break before spinning you into oblivion once more. It feels like the washing machine wants to wash something bad out of all of us... positivity.
Some might EVEN say that positivity is shouting from the backseat and no-one wants to listen to it... [backseat positivity] More than once a week, but less than 4 times a week, you can shove me in your auditory canals and listen to me chat about L.I.F.E., self-improvement, mental health and anything else that my little monkey-mind paws can grasp onto.
Sometimes other humans actually dare to join me.
It's candid, it's fun. Woo!
Backseat Positivity
Surviving and Thriving in Night Shift Chaos
Night shifts can be a beast of their own, and as a locum doctor, I’ve had my fair share of struggles and triumphs. From the anxiety-ridden beginnings to embracing the unique flexibility and experiences they offer, this episode uncovers my journey through the nocturnal world of healthcare. I promise you'll discover insights not just for night owls, but for anyone facing unexpected challenges under the moonlight, whether it’s managing a sleepless baby or navigating late-night work emergencies.
Reflecting on my early days as a healthcare assistant and phlebotomist, and the long nights filled with emotional and mental hurdles, I share candid anecdotes about waking patients at ungodly hours and the sometimes unsettling nature of the night shift grind. Despite the personal battles with anxiety and depression, which I faced head-on with support from occupational health, there were lighter moments too. Who would have thought a quiet night could turn into a game of hangman? This episode invites you into the raw and real experiences of working the night shift, where solitude becomes a close companion.
But what about the toll on our health? We take a deep dive into the long-term effects of disrupted sleep cycles, the battle against unhealthy eating habits, and the surprising ways night shifts can affect our bodies. If you’re navigating the balancing act between financial incentives and well-being, this episode provides a mirror to those struggles, offering a candid look at the impact on one’s health and lifestyle. Through personal stories and reflections, we explore how crafting a healthier routine, even amidst the chaos of night shifts, can make a world of difference. Tune in to explore the epiphanies and lessons learned from a decade in the trenches of night work.
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https://www.patreon.com/diariesofadoctor
I'm feeling good and I'm not quite sure. Oh, I'm feeling good, which is not something I often say, so it's pretty miraculous. I'm feeling good and I'm about to go to work. Even more miraculous because I am not a night shift fan. In the I have not been into night shifts whatsoever, but, alas, I seem to have changed my tune. You know, new year, new me. It's January 2025. And apparently I'm now a night shift kind of gal.
Speaker 1:But my past has not always been so. The past me has not always been so fortunate as to be into night shifts and I've kind of been forced to do it in the past, whereas is voluntary, and I've always questioned why would people voluntarily disrupt their whole life and sleep pattern in order to do a night shift? And now I've become that person and now I see it, I've reached the epiphany of night shift epiphanies. So today I'm going to be explaining my history of time through the night shift era and why it's changed, how it's changed, but also the dangers of night shifts, because they are not all fun and games, my friends. You may know if you do night shifts or if you don't. Oh, by the way, I'm a doctor, if you didn't't know that, and I am a locum doctor, so I kind of just sort of flounce about doing what I want. I don't know if flounce is the right word. That might mean something completely different and you might think, dawn, you can't be feeling good because you look like shit. And that would be slightly true. My friends, I do feel like shit. Wait, no, I look like shit. I feel like a little bit like shit, but we're working through it. So, anyway, this is a quick little podcast before work. I'm actually I've got my lanyard on and everything. I'm ready to go. I start work at eight. It is now ten to seven. So I live life on the edge. People, a lot of my podcasts are fueled by my extreme feelings for things and my extreme feelings. I wasn't going to do a podcast on night shifts and then I was like, wait, there, I'm really loving it and I'm going to do another episode, I think the next, next week I'm going to do an episode on how to do night shifts, like properly, and you might not give a shit, whatever, but one day, people, you might have to do a night shift. In fact, you might have a child who decides that they want to stay up all night. So night shift podcast is for you, not just for night shift workers anyway. So, yeah, I'm a doctor.
Speaker 1:I started working in 2018 as a doctor because I worked before that, but not a doctor. I worked as a HCA, wouldn't you know? And also as a phlebotomist whilst I was in medical school, because I was poor. It was the only way I could get through. So, no, I could have just not spent as much money. But there we go.
Speaker 1:I live a lavish lifestyle, apparently, of having a million animals. They make me happy, okay? So I didn't do any night shifts whilst I was in medical school, because you can't do night shifts and then go to medical school the next day. It just doesn't work. So I would do weekends mostly. I'm like, basically a weekend working whore, like I basically mostly do weekends. At the moment, all of my weekends are just taken up with work, because they pay better and I don't have to do ward rounds.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, one of my biggest issues with being a doctor is doing ward rounds. One of the issues, but that is up there. Ward rounds are like awful. They're just just like depends, you know, are you doing it on your own? Are you doing it with other people. Anyway, you don't need to hear my bugbears with ward rounds, but I really do hate them, so I avoid them at all possibilities. Now you don't need to do a ward round on the weekend, usually it's great, so, so anyway, my history with nights is I started doing them.
Speaker 1:I actually the first day that I worked as a doctor literally the first day like my first ever shift as a doctor was a night shift we used to have to do in fact, they still do it now and people that aren't doctors are like how do they like do this? And I'm like I don't know. My boyfriend the other day was like how do you like get through doing four night shifts in a row? I'm like I don't know. My boyfriend the other day was like how do you like get through doing four night shifts in a row? I'm like, well, you don't have a choice. It's not like you go. No, I'm not really feeling that. It like sounds a little bit too much work for me. No, you just have to do it. It's on the rotor and that's the end of it. Like I like you just do it because you have to.
Speaker 1:How many is I mean by the time you're like you know home and everything. How many hours is it? So I mean, there were 13 and a half hour shifts, but by the time you know, you've got there and back. Let's call it 14 and a half times four and it's 58 hours. It's not actually that much, uh, but I think the most I ever did was 70. Well, to be fair, the most hours I ever did was 100 in a week. That did nearly kill me, but they were 24 hour on calls and people might say, oh, my god, how do you do that? Guys? You're not up for 24 hours, but you are like your brain is thinking for 24 hours and I think that's the danger. Anyway, we're not covering 24 hour on calls today and I've also done like 48 hour on calls as well. So, yeah, those are not so great. We could do those in another episode if you want, but I don't think that people are interested in that.
Speaker 1:Like the people that listen to my podcast I feel like are not doctors necessarily. You might be, in fact, I know a medical student listens. Thank you you very much. I did read your email, by the way, and then I lost access to my email, so I didn't reply. That's not me being a bitch. It's because I can't access my email. So if you want to contact me again, my medical student friend, please do. You can do it on my podcast. Um, there's like a fan mail section, I think. If you go on Spotify you can do it, or it's on my actual podcast website, which is like the Buzzsprout website. So do it through there, because I do want to hear from you. I just I have lost access to my emails. So you know you're a doctor when you've got a packet of lube in your pocket.
Speaker 1:I utilise lube every shift. In fact, I used lube twice yesterday, today, today I won't tell you what for One of the no, in fact, I'm not going to say that. Anyway, I've gone off topic, as usual. So, basically, my first ever shifts as a doctor were night shifts. It was awful because I didn't know what I was doing. There's nobody there, people get sick and you're like I don't know what I'm doing, I'm going to be responsible for these people's lives and they're going to die and I'm going to cry and then I'm going to die. But actually it's not that bad. Like when you look back on it, you're like, okay, but at the time you really do think the whole world is on you. But guys, it's okay In hindsight. You do have support and people don't die easily. You have to do something very, very wrong, anyway.
Speaker 1:So I had really bad anxiety at that point. I think that very much didn't help and actually when I had my at the height of my anxiety and depression issues, I was able to not. The occupational health team said Dawn is not doing night shifts because they ain't good for her. My anxiety would get really bad, I wouldn't sleep and life would just be fucked up for me. Like I just couldn't cope with them. They are not necessarily busier, but they are more lonely. Um, and if you're not sleeping then that just makes the anxiety worse and I used to find them really creepy, like I'd walk around at night.
Speaker 1:In fact, I will tell you a little funny anecdote from last night I the weird thing about night shifts when you're a doctor probably when you're a nurse as well is that you sort of you don't want to wake people up, but you kind of have to, so you like creep in and you're like norma, and norma is deaf, so she didn't hear you norma by the way, norma is a fake person, but you know first name that came to my mind, norma, doesn't wake up. Uh. And then I grabbed this lady's leg last night which sounds kind of creepy when I just say it in isolation but I tried to wake her up verbally. I was like fake name, norma, norma. I like pushed her a little bit. She didn't wake up, so I think she was kind of semi-awake. So anyway, then I like grabbed her leg a bit harder and scared the absolute shit out of her.
Speaker 1:That's not the first person I've scared the shit out of on a night shift, because you don't turn the lights on, you creep around in the dark and then you like appear at someone's bedside and you're like hello, wake up, I'm here and you know they're in a funny place, a foreign place, and then they've got this creepy lady like looming over over them and it's alarming. I understand it. If I wake up in a different place to where I am normally, I'm a bit confused. For five seconds I'm like am I still alive? What's going on? So, anyway, scared the shit out of this lady. And then she's said I was honestly a bit scared for her life because I was like I could have given this lady an actual heart attack, like she was 85 or something, maybe 90. Heart attacks are on the cards when you're that age and I was like, oh, and she even said it. She was like my god, I think you're gonna give me a heart attack. She didn't have one. I'd be pleased to inform you, but anyway. So I find them creepy because you're just creeping around in the dark.
Speaker 1:Now, for some reason, that's changed in my mind. I think I've reached a place in my life and I'll get to it. In fact, no, I think I'll get to it now because I think I'm done with my history with night shifts. So I've reached the place where number one, my anxiety, is like severely under control. You did not think I was going to say that, did you? My anxiety is real good it's. I don't have it very often.
Speaker 1:My depression is variable, but manageable, let's put it that way. I do manage to do. You know my daily life and just about get through it. But no, it's going, it's going all right. You know can't complain, but definitely can complain on some days. But that's just life, isn't it? You know you have ups and downs. Depression is a long-term management situation. It's not like I'm ever gonna not have it. Sadly, uh, and anxiety is kind of the same, I would say, but I don't find it so creepy anymore.
Speaker 1:I think what's happened with age and with, you know, managing my anxiety and my depression but also not wanting to deal with the stress of because I work weekends, they're quite busy. There's a lot of, you know, people want updates, people want there's stuff going on. There's a lot of people that want your attention and I work in the evenings as well, because that's just when the work is, you know and also more money, because you get paid more for working weekends and out of hours and nights. So it's like, you know, I'm doing the same job, kind of. But I think what I've become kind of jaded to is the fact that it's not the same, the fact that it's not the same, the fact that it's more stressful, the fact that there's loads of people there, the fact that everybody wants your attention and I, because I just work I've worked weekends for like 10 years I've just not really noticed it.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I'm kind of done with like all the questions for now. I just I need a bit of solace, a bit of solitude. I need some you know, fewer people in my vicinity for the next month or so I want to be able to walk down the corridor, sit at a computer and not be asked where something is because I don't know. I don't know where the toilet is. I'm sorry. What I do is I just go to the toilet, that I know where it is, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily the closest one. It just means that I know the location. Also, I know the location of the staff toilets. I don't know the location of the patient toilets and the relative toilets anyway, and then oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's just hard work having you know if, if there's like a ward clerk or like lots of nursing staff, that takes some of the pressure off you needing to like answer the phone because it's going, whereas the lack of staff in those areas like really impacts other people and makes your job significantly less efficient. And I'm not the kind of person who can just leave stuff like I like the phone going, like I'm trying to ignore it, but I know it's going. So I do sometimes end up answering it, but then you end up. You end up like five, ten minutes trying to find the nurse for this patient, but then they're busy, but then the relative wants an update and it's just anyway. I'm kind of done with it. I want everyone to be asleep. I just want to walk around, do my thing, see the people who are sick and earn, you know, enough money that I don't have to work like loads, like.
Speaker 1:So if I work a night shift, I get paid double the amount, in fact more than double the amount than I do for a daytime shift. And so the daytime shifts number one I don't like them. And number two, I'm like I'm getting paid significantly less to do something I like significantly less. Like what is the point of this? Like I'm not even sure, by the time tax and everything's taken away, I'm not even sure it's worth me going for eight hours to get paid like, not, like, not enough that I think it's worth it when I could get paid the same, like much more, for either doing a night shift, working a bit later in the day or doing a weekend. But there we go. You get less support from your seniors, is the issue anyway. Um, yeah, I'm just kind of.
Speaker 1:I think the main thing is I'm just done with the busyness, I'm done with all the people. Like there's just so much going on. So, anyway, my night shift last night was pretty good. It was overly quiet I would say you're not allowed to use the q word, but it doesn't matter because I'm not in hospital but it was like overly quiet to the fact to the point where we were playing hangman, which is kind of ironic. But we were playing hangman in the office because there was literally nothing going on and it's like I'm not the kind of person that can go and sleep in a night shift, because if you wake me up number one I get confused. Number two it makes me more tired. Number three I get kind of annoyed because I'm like you just woke me up, I know I'm at work, I get that. So I get kind of annoyed because I'm like you just woke me up, I know I'm at work, I get that. So I just don't sleep because it's like I don't want to get into that mindset where I'm annoyed that somebody is bothering me, so I just stay awake.
Speaker 1:Some people try and go for a nap. It's like sometimes that might be helpful if you're literally like I cannot keep my eyes open, but not for me. No, no, no, because I just I don't want to get annoyed that people are asking me to do work, like I know that's why I'm there, but I need to stay in the work mindset and I took my iPad to work yesterday. I didn't end up getting it out even though I wasn't doing anything. Because the issue is as soon as I get work out and start doing stuff and then I get asked to do something, I start doing stuff and then I get asked to do something. I hate having to like leave something unfinished and then just move on to something else. So I'll try and do something like small, like my Duolingo, and then I don't feel like bothered. Anyway, that's the psyche of Dawn.
Speaker 1:Now there are problems with night shifts. How much time we got left? 10 minutes on the clock. There are problems with night shifts, guys, don't get me wrong. I'm only doing two this week. Then I'm going back onto days. I'm doing Thursday night, which was last night. I'm doing Friday night, which is tonight. I'll finish on Saturday morning. Very confusing, it's like I've lived two days in one day, days in one day, weird. And then saturday morning, I finish at 8 am tomorrow and then I will sleep and then I'll wake up, duh, and then hopefully. And then I'll be working on sunday, which is pretty wild anyway. That's like a normal thing, like one day off, but then you have to try and go to work the next day, but I'm not working till 10am, so it's okay. It's not like an 8am situation, I think, it's uh 10 anyway, I think one.
Speaker 1:The first problem with night shifts is you end up thinking that your days where you're supposed to be sleeping are actually days off. This might just be a me problem. It might not be a like a everyone problem, but it's definitely a me problem. I'm like oh yeah, I've got like two extra free days this week. No, you don't, dawn, you are supposed to be asleep, but in your head you think that these are days off. It makes no sense. So I end up thinking I've got more time than I have, which is fine, but it means that I'm like why do I need to sleep? I don't need to sleep. Yeah, I can do that thing tomorrow. In fact I said that.
Speaker 1:So today there was like I now have a horse, by the way, guys, I don't know if I told you so today I was like there's like a pole work session. It kind of sounds like a pole dancing session, but it's like not, you like trot your horse over poles and stuff. But basically whenever I think, oh, I'm gonna do a pole session. It's like grinding on the pole like guys. I tried pole dancing once. It was the most awkward and unappealing sport for me, like I have no natural talent in it whatsoever. So also, also, I didn't realize the poles spin. Did you know that pole dancing poles spin, like they actually move, so they're not just grinding around a static pole, you can put them on static pole mode. They move, like the whole thing spins. And I was always like, how did they not get chafe? That's why it's honestly a miraculous discovery for me. But maybe they use the lube callback.
Speaker 1:But anyway, I end up then doing too much because I think, oh yeah, I've got days off. The other not the other day, it was a few months ago I did some night shifts, uh, and then, I think, because they were enhanced rate, I was like, fine, I will do some night shifts. I think I did two. And then I went to a concert and I was so fucking tired because, obviously because it was in London, and then, you know, I drove there and I was so sleep deprived and I just hadn't like quite considered that actually I needed to like reset my sleep schedule. I just decided that carrying on with life would be adequate enough for me. No, no, no, it was not. We got there. We should have been like, woo, let's get drinking. Woo. I was like, girl, I need to go to bed, I need a nap. So I had a nap. Didn't really fulfil my life, to be honest. And then you end up you're behind on the like the pre-drinking. So it wasn't like a big sesh, but there we go. That's, that's a big me problem. There. I need to just plan my life a bit better.
Speaker 1:I also think it can be hard to get in or out of night shifts. That's another thing is some people. I actually don't struggle getting into night shifts. I'm a night owl, I can stay awake. In fact, the other day I had a nap in the day and my boyfriend was like, oh, you're not gonna sleep now. I was like, yeah, that's kind of the point I'm on nights this week. And he was like, oh, and then I went to sleep at like 3am. That's usually when it hits me. I get like really tired at like 3 and then I'm like I get a bit bored and I'm like, oh, I just need to keep going. That happened yesterday, like we had a real lull about 3 or 4am and I wanted to go, I think by like 5 6am. I was kind of done with life. I was like I could definitely go now, but alas, we continued because you know that's the shift and you just have to. Oh, sorry if you heard that burp. Anyway, the harder bit for me is getting out of night shifts.
Speaker 1:I am going to do another episode about how to do night shifts, beast mode edition. But I find them really hard to get out of, mainly because I just want to go to sleep and I struggle then to like get out of bed. I'm like I'm tired, I want to sleep, but it's like no, if you, if you stay in bed dawn, you will not sleep tonight. That's the issue. So I really I wanted to go into a bit more detail about the sort of health implications of night shifts. Will I have time? I don't know. This is a. I think I will. I think I can cover it pretty quick. I think I can do it.
Speaker 1:So probably one of the first things is that we get really bad sleep during the day. Now I think sleep is underestimated. People are like, oh yeah, you just go to sleep and that's that's it really. You just go to sleep and that's that's it really. You just go to sleep and it's like good for you, but like have you really thought about what sleep is good for? So, yes, sleep rests your eyes and resets your brain, but a lot of things happen in sleep that we just don't realize, mostly cell repair. So when we go to sleep there are lots of um, proteins and enzymes and I'm trying to think of the word cellular processes lots of things that go on in our body that we're not aware of. Obviously we just think my eyes are rested now and I can think again and I don't feel drunk, but actually our body is doing loads of things. Like we literally need it is a rest period so that our body can go right. We're gonna reset loads of things and it's quite complicated. I mean, that's why I love medicine is because the body is like so infinitely complicated. There's so many things that happen that like I could go into all of the processes, like I'm maybe not clever enough for it well, not not clever enough, I just don't know all of the information. Unsurprisingly, but there are so many processes that go on that we're just not aware of. There are things like cytokines that go.
Speaker 1:I don't want to make this like overly medical is the issue, but basically sleep is our recovery, like our body recovery period, not just for our brains. It's like our cells get turned over and swapped, basically, and we get like cell repair, which means that if that doesn't happen, we can get DNA mutations and our cells get mutated and that is how we get cancer can develop. Second to this, our immune system is bolstered by lots of the things that happen in sleep. Number one, melatonin, and also, if we get less sleep, we have a stress hormone called cortisol which basically, if there's too much of the stress hormone, it can reduce our immune system. Now our immune system. I keep trying to say basically and then, being like Dawn, stop saying basically, this is a very basic overview, okay. So basically saying basically, this is a very basic overview, okay. So basically, well, I'm just going to reset. So if we disrupt our stress hormone, cortisol, which naturally sort of peaks in the morning and lowers again at night, if we disrupt this, we can end up getting sort of higher levels of inflammation and reduced immune system function, which means we can get more infections. It means our cells don't get rid of the cancer or the pre-cancerous ones or, yeah, the mutated ones, and we can get I mean, night shifts have been shown to, you know, long-term night shift use not really the right word.
Speaker 1:Long-term night shift workers have been shown to either, you know, live less long I think it was like seven years or something but also have more health problems. Now is that a kind of cellular body repair situation or is it also a lifestyle thing? I think it's obviously a combination of both. But one of the things with night shifts is people go into this kind of mindset where it's like, well, I'm going to treat myself because I'm on a night shift, like, if you're doing night shifts, you know, once a month, then maybe that's fine. If you're doing night shifts all the time every week, I'm sorry, but eating a share bag of Maltesers every night shift is not going to be great for you.
Speaker 1:The issue is, when you're on night shifts is you end up eating rubbish. You end up having less access to healthier foods. So you know, all the places are shut so you can't just go and get like a salad, like you're gonna end up getting, uh, maybe fast food or um, I got a sandwich from the vending machine which is like not as bad, but like, the other things that were available in there were like a packet of biscuits, like a whole packet of digestive chocolate, digestive biscuits, um, and what else was in there? Pasties, um, those like chicken slice things and it's just shit like, or like they had crisps, fizzy drinks and chocolate and that's kind of all that's available. Or fast food. If you want to order in, then on the weekends you end up getting, uh, we end up getting like pizza on one night and then, um, like as in the hospital kind of orders it in for us, we pay for it, but anyway, um, and then curry the next night, which is like all great and everyone's like, yay, free food. Well, not really free, but you know food, um, but people always say like, oh, why don't you go and get it?
Speaker 1:I'm like because I work. If I'm working every weekend, I can't have pizza and curry every week all the time, because it's like not going to be great for me. And some people don't see that. Some people think, well, I'm on the weekend, so I deserve to, you know, live my best life and I'm on the night shift, so I'm going to be like nice to myself and again. That's fine if you do it every so often, but if you're like me and you work every weekend for the past 10 years, not quite, but if you're a regular weekend worker, you can't just keep doing that. So there are definite like long-term implications of working shift work, whether it's night shifts, whether it's weekend work or whether it's evening work. You do just end up eating less well, especially if you're like not organized, which is kind of my vibe, you know. If you're not like, oh, I'm gonna make a salad for lunchtime, some people will do that, but a lot of people just go, I'm just gonna see what's available at midnight, which is, quite honestly, never gonna really be great.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna lie, though I got. How many steps did I get in? Last night? It felt like I got a lot in, but like I probably didn't, because I didn't really walk up the stairs. I should probably try and walk up more stairs tonight. I think that was my. One of my downfalls last night was I went up and down a lot of flights in the lift. So yesterday I did 8,600 steps, which I think is pretty good, I'm not gonna lie. Um, you know, obviously it sort of spreads over the course of like two days, but, um, it was 8,000 for both days. Oh, wait, there, I can actually. Yeah, I mean, yesterday I did quite a lot. I mean that says 15,000 from 9am till 9am. So Gal got her steps in.
Speaker 1:So I think, if you get out of this, like you know, I'm being nice to myself. Yeah, obviously you can be nice to yourself every once in a while, but just chill out. Be nice to yourself every once in a while, but just chill out, like you know, try and do a bit of exercise and, um, walk up the stairs. I'm gonna, I'm gonna make a promise to myself that I'm gonna walk up the stairs. The problem is the stair. It's like five flights of stairs. It's not like, oh, you know, if it's like one or two, I will actually do it. And I do walk down the stairs. Most often, when it's like five, I'm a bit like, oh, I don't know if I want to walk up five flights of stairs. It is quite a lot anyway. The other thing is, thankfully I'm actually walking to and from work, but I actually got the scooter, because I was so dead this morning that I was like, nah, I'm getting the scooter, but thankfully I don't have to drive to work now, if I have to. If I had to drive, I would be like, oh my god, because you know the you.
Speaker 1:The equivalent how tired you are after a night shift is the equivalent of being drunk. I literally felt drunk this morning. I was like you know what am I talking about? I was just saying so much shit and I was like I could get myself in trouble here. Anyway. Thankfully I didn't have to drive home, but you do feel kind of like wobbly and a bit delirious. Now there can be more like accidents and, um, people who do night shifts I think their insurance can be higher because they're more prone to crashing. So again, but like that, I would say that's not like a huge concern and it can be mitigated. We'll talk about that in the next episode, but there are things that you could do to try and prevent that.
Speaker 1:However, I think the problem is the main problem with night shifts is just the long-term impact. I mean also your social life. Like how many people am I gonna have seen outside of people who I live with and people I work with in the next 48 hours? Like almost nobody. I did go to the pharmacy begrudgingly, but I didn't really have a choice. So, yeah, your social life takes quite a big impact and I'm actually listening to a happiness podcast at the moment which basically says that socializing is one of the biggest benefits to biggest contributors to being happy.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're doing night shifts all the time, like you pretty much don't have a social life, except the people you work with. Night shifts can be so lonely, like you're walking around the hospital on your own and the nurses, like, are in quiet mode and then the patients are asleep, so you don't really end up talking to anybody, which again was kind of one of the reasons why I decided I was going to do night shifts. But definitely one of the negatives is you don't see people in your normal life. The other thing is sunlight. Have I seen the sun? Today? I saw the sun rising, which was kind of weird because it rose at eight, like I kind of thought it was earlier, and that was quite nice. Actually, how often do I see the sunrise? Very infrequently I also saw the sun set. I didn't spend any time out in the sun.
Speaker 1:Now, that's okay, because I'm only doing two night shifts and it's not that common that I do it and actually I do spend a lot of time outdoors with my horsey walking, my dogs, etc. So and it's not that common that I do it, and actually I do spend a lot of time outdoors with my horsey walking, my dogs, etc. So, like it's not too bad, but you do need to be aware like, especially if it's winter, you need that vitamin d, guys. Like it's literally important for your, for your body, like you need it, and you can get things like sad lamps, um, seasonal affective disorder lamps, I don't know. I think they do give you like vitamin d. Your body makes vitamin d. It's not like it gives it to you, but through the sun rays. I'm not sure, though I'd need to like check that, but I don't have one, I just use the, you know, the free sun that we've got in the sky anyway. So how can we prevent all of these issues?
Speaker 1:Well, like I said, how to do night shifts properly. That's going to be one of my next episodes, so tune in if you want to live your best life bitches. Yeah, I just said that and I think, if you can like it can definitely be. Uh, for me it's like a choice. I probably shouldn't get into the habit of doing like loads of night shifts and I need to look after myself whilst I do them Easier said than done people. But, like I said, I'll talk about that in the next episode.
Speaker 1:Probably one of the biggest things is not to live your life in night shift like mode. Like have a job where you can you have a mix. I think having variety in life is great. I think that's why I'm so done with working, because it's literally just like I go to work um on weekends and do evenings and I was just kind of done with it, like having done it for so long. So adding a few night shifts in there is like really mixing it up, but I don't think it's going to be like my long-term vibe. So we'll see if you can try and reduce it, like some people just don't get on with night shifts whatsoever and then you can. If you're working in medicine or um, you know a field where night shifts do happen. You can actually choose jobs in that same field where you don't do night shifts, like you don't actually have to do them, and when you get senior you could just decide I'm not gonna do night shifts. Like it's not a definite answer, like a definite thing, like maybe you will have to do them, but you can also choose jobs where you don't do them anyway.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much for listening guys. Um, give it a like, subscribe, share again, send me your fan mail. You don't have to be a fan, you can just send me a mail, leave a comment. And, yeah, if you want to live your life happy and well, healthily, then this is definitely the podcast for you. Okay, because that's what we do, all right. Anyway, I always give you a little kissy on the microphone. Goodbye. Okay, because that's what we do. All right, anyway, I always give you a little kissy on the microphone. Goodbye, see you next week. Bye, I'm trying to upload every Thursday. Uh, it's currently Friday so I'll, but you know, once a week it's happening.
