What Can Night-Shift Workers Do to Feel Better?

One question for Sarah Chellappa, a neuroscientist at the University of Cologne who studies how sleep and circadian rhythms affect human mood, cognition, and brain activity.

What can night-shift workers do to feel better?

ur findings suggest that meal timing is important for mood., published in the , “Daytime eating prevents mood vulnerability in night work.” It may be helpful if night workers reconsidered the amount of calories, and especially carbohydrates, consumed in the nighttime. Shift workers often experience circadian misalignment, the misalignment between their central circadian clock in the brain and daily behaviors, such as sleep/wake and fasting/eating cycles. They also have a 25 to 40 percent higher risk of depression and anxiety. Meal timing is important for physical health, and diet is important for mood. That’s why we wanted to find out whether meal timing can benefit mental health as well.