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A coffee and catnap keep you sharp on the nightshift, study suggests:
Lead researcher, Dr Stephanie Centofanti from UniSA Online and the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at UniSA says the finding could help counteract the kind of sleep inertia that is experienced by many shiftworkers.
[...] "A 'caffeine-nap' (or 'caff-nap') could be a viable alternative -- by drinking a coffee before taking a nap, shiftworkers can gain the benefits of a 20-30-minute nap then the perk of the caffeine when they wake. It's a win-win."
The small pilot study tested the impact of 200 mg of caffeine (equivalent to 1-2 regular cups of coffee) consumed by participants just before a 3.30am 30-minute nap, comparing results with a group that took a placebo.
Participants taking a 'caffeine-nap' showed marked improvements in both performance and alertness, indicating the potential of a 'caffeine-nap' to counteract sleep grogginess.
Journal Reference:
Stephanie Centofanti, Siobhan Banks, et al.A pilot study investigating the impact of a caffeine-nap on alertness during a simulated night shift, Chronobiology International (DOI: 10.1080/07420528.2020.1804922)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2020, @12:36PM
Plenty of industries where that's not really the case, even if more and variegated work happens during the day. Plenty of other industries are globally distributed and sometimes meetings have to occur in the dead of night where you are. And yet other jobs one places serious upgrades and acceptance testing during the dead of night to minimize disruptions to the day customers and employees. That's more actual serious work than usually goes on during the day. You must have just had a really limited work life.
And while there are many jobs that would not permit the above, if your job has a half-hour meal period that doesn't have to be stood 'on-duty' there's nothing permitting you from doing that yourself. The job I'm starting next month is night shift, but unfortunately the lunch period is of the type where one must indeed continue to monitor for shit happening.
The interesting part of the story is wondering why that would be any different from day shift. Why couldn't you do that with your lunch hour and ramp up into the afternoon?
That said, when I used to have caffeine before bed I get really fucked up dreams. Now I only do caffeine when I need an actual extra boost over and above my usual workload.