{"id":5269,"date":"2015-08-17T16:40:25","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T15:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=5269"},"modified":"2015-08-18T10:32:48","modified_gmt":"2015-08-18T09:32:48","slug":"all-through-the-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=5269","title":{"rendered":"All through the night"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Working nights has become a new norm, a recent TUC survey has found.<\/p>\n

 
\nMore than 3m people now regularly work through the night, an arrangement that can have a devastating impact on not only physical and mental health but also family life.<\/p>\n

 
\nWhile traditionally, men working in manufacturing most commonly worked night shifts, the number of women working at night has increased dramatically \u00e2\u20ac\u201c over the past seven years, women working night shifts has shot up by 12 per cent, while during the same time period, the increase for men was only 4 per cent.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe survey also showed that black and ethnic minority people are much more likely to work night shifts than the general population, and that young people under 24 are twice as likely to work at night as young people were 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

 
\nNight workers subject themselves to significant health risks \u00e2\u20ac\u201c many studies have showed that shift work, particularly working nights, can lead to cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and even breast cancer. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a link between night work and depression, ulcers and an increased risk of injury.<\/p>\n

 
\nWhile there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much larger body of evidence pointing to the health risks of night work, only now is more research being done that shows the toll that night work takes on family life.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe TUC report pointed to a Scandinavian analysis of existing research which found that those who work night shifts have greater levels of marital problems and divorce. There was also a link between parents working at night and behavioural and emotional problems among their children.<\/p>\n

 
\nNHS paramedic Debbie Wilkinson, who is also Unite chair of the national ambulance committee, is one such worker who must brave night shifts.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incredibly hard,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she told UNITElive. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd because the ambulance service is so strained, night work is exacerbated by the fact that you never finish your shift when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supposed to. I was supposed to work two 12 hour shifts earlier in the week, but I ended up working a 14 hour shift and 13 hour shift.<\/p>\n

 
\nWilkinson noted that when she must work night shifts, she \u00e2\u20ac\u015bessentially writes the whole week off\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.
\nShe said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not able to get the things done like shopping and chores because you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to sleep during the day,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bNight work can also really affect your concentration, and because our workloads have gone up so much in the last few years, this can be extremely dangerous.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nHealth problems<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nWilkinson can attest to the health problems that night workers must contend with.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn our profession, obesity and gastrointestinal problems are very common, mostly because you rarely take your meal breaks on time, and because you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re always so busy, you end up eating rubbish,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is made even worse by night work because your body clock is off.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOf course, night work takes a major toll on your family and social life,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Wilkinson added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMost people work during the day, so if you have to work regular night shifts, you hardly have time to see your friends and family.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nThe TUC highlighted in its report that many employers do not give night shift workers the free health assessments they are entitled under the Working Time Regulations.<\/p>\n

 
\nWilkinson notes that she and many of her colleagues are not classified as night workers because they also have regular day time shifts, even though as much as 50 per cent of the work she does is at night.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBecause we aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t officially night workers, we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t benefit from the free health assessments night workers have,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOf course, night working is part of our job, but the ambulance service is at 97 per cent capacity,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Wilkinson added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf we want to mitigate the health and social effects of night shift work, recruiting more staff is absolutely paramount, so that shifts can be distributed more evenly. We are at absolute breaking point right now \u00e2\u20ac\u201c our workloads have increased relentlessly year-on-year.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur bosses should work more closely with us to ensure that when a shift is finished, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually finished,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Wilkinson went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorking such long shifts, especially at night, is very dangerous for patients.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nRead the full TUC report on shift work, A Hard Day\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Night, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Working nights has become a new norm, a recent TUC survey has found.   More than 3m people now regularly work through the night, an arrangement that can have a devastating impact on not only physical and mental health but also family life.   While traditionally, men working in manufacturing most commonly worked night shifts, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[161,358],"wps_subtitle":"Night shift is never easy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c say paramedics ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5270,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5269\/revisions\/5270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}