Shift work asks a lot of the body. Irregular sleeps, long stretches on your feet or in a vehicle, the physical demands of nursing, security, warehousing, emergency services or any number of other roles and then trying to recover properly when your schedule makes that difficult. We see a lot of shift workers at Langwarrin Family Chiropractic and we understand that your body isn’t on a nine-to-five schedule.

Shift work affects the body in a few different ways. Physically, long periods on your feet, interrupted sleep and the demands of manual or care-based work all contribute to pain and tension that can be hard to shift. There is also the effect that disrupted sleep has on the nervous system and in turn the body’s ability to recover, regulate pain and manage tension. When sleep is consistently broken or off-cycle, the body holds more tension and recovers more slowly. That’s often what makes shift workers complaints feel stubborn.

What we commonly see:

• Finishing a run of shifts feeling wrecked and not just tired

• Aching back, neck or legs after long periods on your feet

• Never feeling fully recovered due to broken or off-cycle sleep

• Tension that builds through a shift and doesn’t fully release

• People managing pain with anti-inflammatories more than they would like