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Nobody Taught You How to Work Shifts — And That’s the Problem

Shift workers are trained to do their jobs, but how many are actually taught how to work shifts?

In this episode, I explore one of the biggest gaps in 24/7 workplaces: understanding the biological reality of working when the body expects to sleep and trying to recover when the rest of the world is awake.

Drawing on more than 40 years of frontline shift work, I discuss why generic health advice often fails shift workers, the importance of understanding sleep, daylight, movement and nutrient timing, and why different rosters require different strategies.

Because good shift work education shouldn’t just give people rules. It should help them understand why, so they can make better decisions around the roster and life they actually live.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Support the show

----------------------------

Roger Sutherland is Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist and the founder of A Healthy Shift.

After more than 40 years working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, Roger now helps organisations reduce fatigue risk, improve staff wellbeing and build healthier, safer and higher-performing 24/7 workplaces through evidence-based education, circadian biology and the Shift Work Champions™ Framework.

Shift Work Champions™: https://join.ahealthyshift.com/shift-work-capability

Website: https://ahealthyshift.com.au

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sutherland

Instagram: @a_healthy_shift

___________________

Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional.  Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.

_______________________

Text me what you thought of the show 😊

Night shift doesn’t only disrupt when you sleep. It can completely change when you eat.

One day you’re eating dinner at six in the evening. The next, you’re having a main meal at two in the morning, eating breakfast after work and then trying to return to daytime meals on your days off.

Researchers call this “eating jet lag”: the difference between the timing of your eating window on workdays and days off.

In this episode, I examine a new study involving more than 104,000 adults. Among the male participants, each additional hour of eating jet lag was associated with a 14% higher risk of cardiovascular disease and a 21% higher risk of coronary heart disease. No significant association was detected among women.

This was an observational study and it was not conducted specifically in shift workers, so it cannot prove that changing meal times causes cardiovascular disease. But it raises an important question for anyone whose roster repeatedly shifts their eating across the day and night.

I also discuss a 2025 randomised laboratory trial examining daytime-only eating during simulated night work. The study found that people who ate across the day and night experienced changes in several cardiovascular risk markers. These changes were not seen in the daytime-eating group.

The trial was small and involved healthy people who were not actual shift workers. It does not prove that every night worker should fast throughout their shift. However, it adds controlled evidence that meal timing can influence how the cardiovascular system responds to circadian disruption.

In this episode, I cover:

• What eating jet lag means
• Why shift workers may experience large changes in meal timing
• How food helps regulate clocks throughout the body
• What the latest cardiovascular research found
• The important limitations of both studies
• Why overnight grazing can extend your eating window
• How to create more consistent meal-timing anchors
• Why workplaces share responsibility for supporting healthier eating patterns

The aim is not to create a perfect eating schedule. It is to understand your current pattern and reduce unnecessary changes where your roster and personal circumstances allow.

Start by recording the times of your first and last calories across several shifts and days off. That includes meals, snacks, energy drinks, soft drinks and milk or sugar added to coffee.

Your roster may force you to work against your biological clock. But with some planning, it does not have to control every part of when you eat as well.

If this episode helps, share it with a colleague who works nights.

Learn more about evidence-based shift work education, coaching and workplace programs at A Healthy Shift.

Scientific references

1. Le Folcalvez, X., Obeid, E., Palomar-Cros, A., et al. (2026). Eating jetlag based on meal timing discrepancies and risk of cardiovascular disease using the prospective cohort NutriNet-Santé. Communications Medicine, 6, 453.
2. Chellappa, S. L., Gao, L., Qian, J., et al. (2025). Daytime eating during simulated night work mitigates changes in cardiovascular risk factors: Secondary analyses of a randomized controlled trial. Nature Communications, 16, 3186.

Support the show

----------------------------

Roger Sutherland is Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist and the founder of A Healthy Shift.

After more than 40 years working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, Roger now helps organisations reduce fatigue risk, improve staff wellbeing and build healthier, safer and higher-performing 24/7 workplaces through evidence-based education, circadian biology and the Shift Work Champions™ Framework.

Shift Work Champions™: https://join.ahealthyshift.com/shift-work-capability

Website: https://ahealthyshift.com.au

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sutherland

Instagram: @a_healthy_shift

___________________

Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional.  Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.

_______________________

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Is night shift bad for your health?

The research linking night shift work with circadian disruption, poor sleep, metabolic dysfunction and increased long-term health risks gives us good reason to take the question seriously.

But there’s an important part of the night shift conversation that often gets missed.

In this episode of A Healthy Shift, I look at two issues every night shift worker should understand.

First, feeling good on permanent night shift does not necessarily mean your body has biologically adapted to working at night. Research examining permanent night workers found that complete adjustment of the circadian melatonin rhythm was rare. You can become very good at functioning on night shift without becoming fully circadianly aligned to it.

Second, what happens when we actually teach shift workers how to work with their biology?

Shift workers are trained extensively to do their jobs, but very few are properly taught how to manage sleep after night shift, light exposure, caffeine timing, meal timing, movement and recovery around a 24/7 roster.

That distinction matters.

Night shift creates a biological challenge. But that doesn't mean every additional behaviour that makes night shift harder is unavoidable.

In this episode, I discuss circadian misalignment and permanent night shift, why feeling adapted isn't necessarily biological adaptation, what night shift research can and cannot tell us, and how sleep, daylight, artificial light at night, caffeine, movement and nutrient timing can influence the experience of working nights.

Most importantly, this isn't about pretending we can make night shift biologically harmless.

It's about bridging the gap between circadian science and the reality of the person working at 3am.

Because millions of nurses, police officers, paramedics, emergency service workers, factory workers, miners, transport workers and other 24/7 employees can't simply stop working nights.

They deserve more than being told, “Night shift is bad for you.”

They deserve to be taught how to do it better.

Support the show

----------------------------

Roger Sutherland is Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist and the founder of A Healthy Shift.

After more than 40 years working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, Roger now helps organisations reduce fatigue risk, improve staff wellbeing and build healthier, safer and higher-performing 24/7 workplaces through evidence-based education, circadian biology and the Shift Work Champions™ Framework.

Shift Work Champions™: https://join.ahealthyshift.com/shift-work-capability

Website: https://ahealthyshift.com.au

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sutherland

Instagram: @a_healthy_shift

___________________

Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional.  Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.

_______________________

Text me what you thought of the show 😊

What if some of the biggest stressors in your life don’t actually feel like stress?

For shift workers, stress isn’t only a difficult boss, a busy shift, financial pressure or feeling overwhelmed. Your body can be dealing with physiological stress even when you feel perfectly fine.

In this episode of A Healthy Shift, I look at the stress we often don’t recognise.

Working through the biological night. Circadian misalignment. Artificial light at night. Scrolling on your phone when your body is expecting darkness. Poor or mistimed sleep. Eating at times your metabolism isn’t expecting food. And the metabolic consequences that can develop over time.

I also explore visceral fat and why the conversation about weight needs to go beyond appearance. Excess visceral adipose tissue is biologically active and is associated with inflammation, insulin resistance and increased cardiometabolic risk.

But not all hidden stress is biological.

What happens when the way you’re living no longer reflects what you say matters to you? When your limited time away from shift work is being spent on obligations, relationships or priorities that don’t align with your personal values?

In this episode:

•  Why feeling relaxed doesn’t necessarily mean your body isn’t under physiological strain 
•  How shift work can create circadian misalignment 
•  Why artificial light at night matters 
•  How daylight helps anchor the circadian system 
•  The relationship between sleep, metabolic health and shift work 
•  Why visceral fat is about more than body size or appearance 
•  How our relationships, priorities and personal values can contribute to stress 
•  Why some shift work stress becomes so normal that we stop noticing it 
•  Practical areas where you can reduce unnecessary load without trying to eliminate stress altogether 

The question to take away from this episode isn’t simply:

“Do I feel stressed?”

It’s:

“What is my body having to deal with?”

Because when something has become normal, that doesn’t necessarily mean it has become biologically harmless.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Support the show

----------------------------

Roger Sutherland is Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist and the founder of A Healthy Shift.

After more than 40 years working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, Roger now helps organisations reduce fatigue risk, improve staff wellbeing and build healthier, safer and higher-performing 24/7 workplaces through evidence-based education, circadian biology and the Shift Work Champions™ Framework.

Shift Work Champions™: https://join.ahealthyshift.com/shift-work-capability

Website: https://ahealthyshift.com.au

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sutherland

Instagram: @a_healthy_shift

___________________

Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional.  Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.

_______________________

Text me what you thought of the show 😊

Stop Replacing Shift Workers. Start Asking Why They're Leaving.

If your organisation is constantly recruiting shift workers to replace the people who are leaving, there may be another question worth asking:

Why are they leaving in the first place?

Staff turnover in 24/7 workplaces can have many causes, including leadership, pay, career opportunities, workload, workplace culture and personal circumstances. But there is another factor leaders should consider.

How much is the experience of living around shift work contributing to good people eventually saying, "I can't keep doing this"?

In this episode of A Healthy Shift, I draw on more than 40 years of frontline shift work to explore the connection between shift work, chronic fatigue, work-life balance and employee retention.

Sometimes people don't leave because they hate their profession. They leave because they're exhausted by the life that has developed around it.

Poor sleep becomes normal. Days off become recovery days. Exercise disappears. Relationships become harder to maintain. Friends stop seeing each other. Family time suffers. And eventually a worker who once loved their job starts questioning whether they can continue living this way.

For organisations struggling with staff turnover, unplanned leave, fatigue and morale, recruitment is only one side of the equation.

Retention requires asking what is happening to the people you already have.

I explain why helping shift workers understand sleep, daylight, movement, nutrient timing and fatigue management can give them greater control over life around their roster.

And importantly, the goal isn't simply to make people better at working.

It's to help shift workers have more energy to do the things they love outside work.

Because when shift workers have more energy outside their shift-working life, they're in a better position to thrive within it.

This final episode in the four-part Shift Work Champions™ series also brings together the Enterprise Framework: workforce education as the foundation, followed by developing Shift Work Champions™ to help build sustainable internal shift work capability.

Shift Work Champions™ won't solve every cause of employee turnover. But if the experience of working shifts is contributing to good people struggling or considering leaving, it's a factor worth addressing.

In this episode

•  Why constantly recruiting doesn't necessarily solve a retention problem 
•  The difference between leaving a profession and leaving the life surrounding shift work 
•  How chronic fatigue can affect life outside work 
•  Why days off can gradually become recovery days 
•  The relationship between shift work education and sustainable work-life balance 
•  Why generic 9-to-5 health advice often doesn't fit 24/7 workers 
•  The role of sleep, daylight, movement and nutrient timing 
•  Why "Control the Controllable" matters for shift workers 
•  Moving workplace wellbeing from reactive support towards preventative education 
•  How Shift Work Champions™ builds internal shift work capability 
•  Why employee retention has to consider the human being behind the turnover statistic 

If you're a CEO, operational leader, People & Culture leader, HR professional or wellbeing manager dealing with staff turnover in a 24/7 workforce, ask yourself:

How much of our retention problem is connected to the way our people are experiencing life around shift work?

Learn more about Shift Work Champions™ and the Enterprise Framework below

"Because it doesn't have to be this way."

Support the show

----------------------------

Roger Sutherland is Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist and the founder of A Healthy Shift.

After more than 40 years working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, Roger now helps organisations reduce fatigue risk, improve staff wellbeing and build healthier, safer and higher-performing 24/7 workplaces through evidence-based education, circadian biology and the Shift Work Champions™ Framework.

Shift Work Champions™: https://join.ahealthyshift.com/shift-work-capability

Website: https://ahealthyshift.com.au

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sutherland

Instagram: @a_healthy_shift

___________________

Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional.  Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.

_______________________

Text me what you thought of the show 😊

I join Tony McManus on 3AW’s Australia Overnight for a lively conversation about the “pub test,” government spending, Victoria’s debt and the pressure facing police, nurses, paramedics and teachers.

We also bring the conversation back to shift work health, including a practical overnight food option that can provide protein without a heavy meal.

Then we speak with Antony from Runway Pickleball about why pickleball is growing so quickly in Australia. 

We discuss how easy it is to learn and how it can help shift workers and first responders stay active, have fun and build social connection outside work.

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST FOR OUR EMERGENCY SERVICES PICKLEBALL

https://link.systemisedtoscale.com/widget/form/uAiPmaNrpwP4I3V5hYDF

You can find Runway Pickleball at runwaypickleball.playbypoint.com/

Runway Pickleball - 8 Sabre Ct, Tullamarine VIC 3043

To learn more about my evidence-based support for shift workers and Shift Work Champions™ framework, visit ahealthyshift.com

Support the show

----------------------------

Roger Sutherland is Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist and the founder of A Healthy Shift.

After more than 40 years working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, Roger now helps organisations reduce fatigue risk, improve staff wellbeing and build healthier, safer and higher-performing 24/7 workplaces through evidence-based education, circadian biology and the Shift Work Champions™ Framework.

Shift Work Champions™: https://join.ahealthyshift.com/shift-work-capability

Website: https://ahealthyshift.com.au

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sutherland

Instagram: @a_healthy_shift

___________________

Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional.  Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.

_______________________

Text me what you thought of the show 😊

What If Your Shift Work Expert Was Already on Shift?

Who does a shift worker turn to at 2am when they're exhausted, struggling with night shift and wondering how much longer they can keep doing it?

Usually, it's the person working beside them.

That conversation might contain years of experience. But it can also contain outdated advice, workplace myths or the familiar response: "That's night shift. You'll get used to it."

What if that conversation could be different?

In this episode of A Healthy Shift, I explain the thinking behind Shift Work Champions™ and why building internal shift work capability could change the way 24/7 organisations support their people.

Following more than 40 years of frontline shift work, I understand that the people employees already trust are often working right beside them. They know the roster, the workplace, the pressures, the culture and what actually happens at 2am.

Shift Work Champions™ builds on that existing trust by developing selected employees with deeper shift work education, clear boundaries, practical resources and ongoing support.

They aren't doctors, psychologists, nutritionists or workplace health police. And they're not there to replace existing health, safety or wellbeing services.

They're educated peers who can help keep good shift work conversations alive after the initial workforce training has finished.

This episode explores the difference between bringing expertise into an organisation and building capability within it. I explain why workforce education provides the foundation, while Shift Work Champions™ can help reinforce that knowledge on shift, in the workplace and in real time.

Because if all your shift work knowledge disappears when the external educator walks out the door, what happens next?

In this episode

•  What a Shift Work Champion™ actually is 
•  What a Champion is not 
•  Why shift workers often turn to trusted colleagues for advice 
•  The difference between external expertise and internal capability 
•  Why lived workplace context matters 
•  How Champions reinforce shift work education 
•  The importance of scope, boundaries and appropriate referral 
•  Why selecting the right Champions isn't simply about choosing the "healthiest" employees 
•  How internal capability can help education survive staff turnover 
•  Why Champions need development and ongoing support 
•  How everyday conversations can influence workplace culture 
•  Why the goal is capability rather than dependency on an external provider 

If you're responsible for employee wellbeing, fatigue management, People & Culture, HR or a 24/7 operational workforce, consider one question:

Who are the people your workers already trust?

Your future Shift Work Champions™ may already be on shift.

Learn more about Shift Work Champions™ and the Enterprise Framework through the link in the show notes.

Because it doesn't have to be this way.

Support the show

----------------------------

Roger Sutherland is Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist and the founder of A Healthy Shift.

After more than 40 years working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, Roger now helps organisations reduce fatigue risk, improve staff wellbeing and build healthier, safer and higher-performing 24/7 workplaces through evidence-based education, circadian biology and the Shift Work Champions™ Framework.

Shift Work Champions™: https://join.ahealthyshift.com/shift-work-capability

Website: https://ahealthyshift.com.au

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sutherland

Instagram: @a_healthy_shift

___________________

Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional.  Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.

_______________________

Text me what you thought of the show 😊

Your Shift Workers Don't Need More Motivation. They Need Understanding.

Are your shift workers really unmotivated, or have they simply never been taught how to work shifts properly?

Many 24/7 organisations invest in employee wellbeing, fatigue management and health education, yet still struggle with chronic fatigue, unplanned leave, poor morale and staff turnover.

The problem may not be motivation.

In this episode of A Healthy Shift, I challenge the idea that exhausted shift workers simply need more discipline, better habits or another wellbeing initiative.

After more than 40 years of frontline 24/7 shift work, I have seen how often people are placed onto night shifts, rotating rosters and long shifts without ever being taught how those working hours affect their biology.

We train people to do their jobs. But who teaches them how to build a healthy life around the hours they're required to work?

I explain why understanding must come before behaviour change, why generic 9-to-5 health advice often fails shift workers, and why overwhelming already-fatigued employees with more tasks can make the problem worse.

I also introduce the four biological signals at the foundation of A Healthy Shift: sleep, daylight, movement and nutrient timing, and explain why simple education around these areas can give shift workers greater control over the things they can actually influence.

The episode also explores an important principle for both workers and organisations:

Education enables responsibility.

An employer can't go home with a worker and make them sleep, exercise or prepare their meals. But expecting people to successfully manage the biological challenges of 24/7 work without first educating them is a very different matter.

This is where Shift Work Champions™ builds on workforce education by helping organisations develop internal shift work capability, keeping practical, evidence-based conversations alive on shift and in real time.

If you're responsible for a 24/7 workforce and you're dealing with fatigue, burnout, unplanned leave, staff turnover or employees struggling with their roster, perhaps the question isn't:

"How do we motivate our people?"

Perhaps it's:

"Have we ever properly taught them how to work shifts?"

Learn more about Shift Work Champions™ and the Enterprise Framework through the link in the show notes.

Because it doesn't have to be this way.

In this episode

•  Why motivation isn't necessarily the problem in fatigued workforces 
•  Why shift workers need understanding before behaviour change 
•  The problem with applying generic 9-to-5 health advice to 24/7 workers 
•  Why explaining the "why" makes practical strategies easier to implement 
•  Sleep, daylight, movement and nutrient timing as biological signals 
•  Why A Healthy Shift teaches "Control the Controllable" 
•  The difference between individual and organisational responsibility 
•  Why education enables responsibility 
•  How Shift Work Champions™ can reinforce education inside the workplace 
•  Building internal shift work capability rather than relying on one-off wellbeing initiatives

Support the show

----------------------------

Roger Sutherland is Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist and the founder of A Healthy Shift.

After more than 40 years working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, Roger now helps organisations reduce fatigue risk, improve staff wellbeing and build healthier, safer and higher-performing 24/7 workplaces through evidence-based education, circadian biology and the Shift Work Champions™ Framework.

Shift Work Champions™: https://join.ahealthyshift.com/shift-work-capability

Website: https://ahealthyshift.com.au

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sutherland

Instagram: @a_healthy_shift

___________________

Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional.  Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.

_______________________

Text me what you thought of the show 😊

Why One-Off Shift Work Training Isn't Enough for 24/7 Workforces

What happens after your workplace shift work training ends?

A seminar can create awareness. It can give shift workers those important lightbulb moments where they finally understand why they struggle with sleep, fatigue, nutrition, recovery and life around a 24/7 roster.

But what happens three weeks later? Three months later? Or when a new employee starts six months later?

In this episode of A Healthy Shift, I explore why one-off shift work training should be the beginning of an organisation's strategy, not the end.

After more than 40 years of frontline 24/7 shift work, I believe most shift workers aren't lacking motivation. They've simply never been properly educated about how working outside conventional hours affects their biology or what they can practically do about it.

I discuss the difference between providing information and building internal shift work capability, why education enables individual responsibility, and why expecting chronically fatigued workers to remember and implement everything from a single wellbeing session is unrealistic.

I also explain the thinking behind Shift Work Champions™: educating the broader workforce, then developing people within the organisation who can help keep those conversations alive on shift, in the workplace and in real time.

If your organisation is dealing with shift worker fatigue, high staff turnover, unplanned leave, poor morale or a workforce struggling with the demands of 24/7 work, this episode asks an important question:

What happens after the training?

Learn more about Shift Work Champions™ and the Enterprise Framework through the link in the show notes.

Because it doesn't have to be this way.

In this episode

•  Why one-off shift work training has limitations 
•  Why most shift workers were never taught how to work shifts 
•  The difference between workforce education and internal capability 
•  Why fatigue isn't simply a motivation problem 
•  Why education enables responsibility 
•  What Shift Work Champions™ are, and what they are not 
•  How organisations can keep shift work education alive after the educator leaves 
•  Why sustainable shift work support needs to extend beyond another wellbeing presentation

Support the show

----------------------------

Roger Sutherland is Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist and the founder of A Healthy Shift.

After more than 40 years working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, Roger now helps organisations reduce fatigue risk, improve staff wellbeing and build healthier, safer and higher-performing 24/7 workplaces through evidence-based education, circadian biology and the Shift Work Champions™ Framework.

Shift Work Champions™: https://join.ahealthyshift.com/shift-work-capability

Website: https://ahealthyshift.com.au

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sutherland

Instagram: @a_healthy_shift

___________________

Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional.  Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.

_______________________

Text me what you thought of the show 😊

Could creatine monohydrate help night-shift workers maintain cognitive performance when they’re tired and sleep-deprived?

Creatine is best known for its role in strength, muscle and exercise performance. But a growing area of research is examining something very different: creatine, the brain, and sleep deprivation.

And this could have implications for people who work through the night.

In this episode of A Healthy Shift, I look at new research investigating whether creatine supplementation can reduce some of the decline in cognitive performance that occurs during sleep deprivation.

A 2026 randomised, double-blind crossover study put healthy adults through 21 hours of sleep deprivation and found that a single dose of creatine monohydrate reduced deterioration in several measures of cognitive performance.

But does that mean shift workers should start taking creatine before night shift?

Not so fast.

I break down what the research actually shows, where the evidence is still lacking and why we cannot assume that results from experimentally sleep-deprived healthy adults will automatically apply to nurses, paramedics, police, emergency services, transport workers and others working night shift.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why creatine isn't just about muscle and exercise performance
• The role of creatine and phosphocreatine in cellular energy availability
• What happens to cognitive performance during sleep deprivation
• What the new 2026 creatine and sleep deprivation study found
• Why earlier research from 2006 and 2024 also matters
• Why creatine may become more interesting when the brain is under metabolic stress
• What the research could mean for night shift workers
• Why the current evidence does NOT prove creatine improves night shift performance
• The difference between experimental creatine doses and typical daily supplementation
• Why creatine should never be viewed as a replacement for sleep
• What research we still need specifically in real-world shift workers

The evidence around creatine and sleep deprivation is promising, but it remains preliminary.

A 2026 systematic review identified only five eligible studies examining creatine supplementation during acute sleep deprivation. While the overall findings were favourable, researchers concluded that more high-quality research is needed.

For shift workers, the question is an important one.

Could creatine monohydrate eventually become another tool for supporting cognitive performance when the sleep-deprived brain is being asked to perform during the biological night?

We don't have a definitive answer yet.

But it's a question worth investigating.

Listen to the full episode for an evidence-based look at creatine, night shift, sleep deprivation, fatigue and cognitive performance without getting ahead of the science.

Scientific references and further reading are available with the accompanying blog at ahealthyshift.com

Support the show

----------------------------

Roger Sutherland is Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist and the founder of A Healthy Shift.

After more than 40 years working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, Roger now helps organisations reduce fatigue risk, improve staff wellbeing and build healthier, safer and higher-performing 24/7 workplaces through evidence-based education, circadian biology and the Shift Work Champions™ Framework.

Shift Work Champions™: https://join.ahealthyshift.com/shift-work-capability

Website: https://ahealthyshift.com.au

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sutherland

Instagram: @a_healthy_shift

___________________

Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional.  Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.

_______________________