At Arcascope, we’re focused on helping shift workers get more sleep and feel better with circadian-specific interventions. In particular, we’ve spoken to a lot of shift workers in the healthcare industry about their experiences working nights. A lot of the lessons we’ve learned are echoed in this recent survey we ran with 218 nurses who […]
Feeling Flat
Over and over again, I’ve heard shift workers say something like the following: “I have no rhythms.” “It’s just a constant experience of bleh.” “I get off shift, and more than tired, I just feel… flat.” “Ah,” I think when I hear this. “The amplitudes of their circadian rhythms have been squashed.” To steal an […]
Visualizing MESA: Part 2
We’ve already looked at the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) dataset—an absolute treasure trove of sleep data, available from the NSRR at sleepdata.org—once, through the lens of sleep duration. But what about other dimensions of sleep health? After all, sleep regularity may be just as important as sleep duration in a number of contexts. We […]
A space for shift workers, Pt. 2
Here again is our blog feature where we look on the internet for what folks are saying about their shift work, and try to speak to their experiences with the power of circadian science. First up: Reddit User: My shift is usually 7pm-3:15am. when i get off work i shower, eat, and watch some Netflix […]
Sleep Regularity + Students = An A+ Idea
College, as any student can attest to, is a hectic life. Look no further than my past spring semester for a prime example of this. Taking multiple difficult classes while managing club activities and a social life was a whirlwind that was both exhausting and invigorating at the same time. The thorn in my side, […]
What matters besides light?
A Guide to Non-Photic Zeitgebers We can all agree that the difference between night and day is, well, night and day when it comes to light. The progressive change in light present in our environment is subconsciously tracked by our bodies and that information is used to help time our sleep-wake cycles. Of course, not […]
Light at night is bad, people.
Imagine you’re on a swing on a playground with a friend standing behind you. This friend is not a jerk, so they’re going to push you when a normal person would push you on a swing—right when you’re at the end of your backwards motion and ready to start moving forward again. They, like a […]
We Rate Sleep Memes, Pt. 2
Back by popular demand, here is part two of the “We Rate Sleep Memes” blog series. If you’re just now tuning in (check out part one here), the title pretty much says it all. We take sleep-related memes we find online, we use them as an excuse to talk about sleep and circadian science, and […]
What do shift workers do & what might they do?
So you want to help shift workers feel better—sleep better, be safer, have fewer of the long term chronic health problems that go hand in hand with shift work. How do you do it? Where do you start? As some of the most circadian-wrecked people around, shift workers have been the topic of no small […]
One Simple* Rule for Understanding Your Sleep
My friend sent this to me the other day: “If I go to bed at 10:30 pm, I often wake up at 4:30 or 5:30 am and can’t go back to sleep. But if I go to bed at 1:00 am, I fall asleep easily and can sleep until 9:00 am. Throughout the work week […]