Working nights: how to sleep, eat and stay healthy on night shifts
6 minute read · 2026-10-08
Staying healthy on nights comes down to protecting your daytime sleep, eating lighter and earlier in the shift, being careful on the drive home, and keeping some contact with daylight and other people. Your employer also has duties: if you are a night worker, it must offer you a free health assessment before you start and at regular intervals after that.
The legal limits on night hours and breaks are covered in shift work, night work and the law. This post is about getting through it well.
Sleep: protect it like a shift
- Make the room dark. Blackout blinds or a sleep mask. Even small amounts of light make daytime sleep lighter.
- Make it quiet. Earplugs, a fan or white noise, phone on do not disturb, a sign on the door if you share a house.
- Make it cool. Daytime bedrooms get warm, especially in summer.
- Keep a routine. Many night workers sleep soon after getting home, in one main block, and some add a short nap before the next shift. Find what works and keep it on your nights.
- Tell the people you live with when you sleep, and ask them to treat it like the middle of the night.
Caffeine and winding down
Use caffeine early in the shift rather than in the last few hours, so it is not still working when you try to sleep. On the way home, sunglasses on a bright morning can help you feel less wide awake. Avoid using alcohol to help you sleep: it gets you to sleep but makes the sleep worse.
Food on nights
- Have a proper meal before the shift, at a time that feels like your "dinner".
- In the middle of the night, eat lighter: soup, eggs, sandwiches, fruit, yoghurt. Heavy, greasy food at 3am sits badly for most people.
- Bring food from home. Vending machines and the drive through are expensive and mostly sugar.
- Drink water through the shift.
The NHS advises everyone in the UK to consider a daily vitamin D supplement in autumn and winter, and people who get little sun (which can include night workers) may need it all year. Ask your GP or pharmacist if unsure.
The drive home
The end of a night shift is one of the most dangerous times to drive. If you feel drowsy, stop somewhere safe and take a short nap, and do not rely on opening the window or turning the radio up. If you regularly struggle, consider public transport or a lift, and tell your employer: it is a health and safety issue, not a personal failing.
Your free health assessment
Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, an employer must offer a free health assessment to anyone becoming a night worker, and repeat it regularly. It is often a questionnaire reviewed by someone with health training. You can decline it, but it is worth doing. If a doctor confirms that night work is harming your health, your employer must transfer you to suitable day work where it is possible. GOV.UK: night worker health assessments.
Stay connected
Night work can be lonely. Plan time with family and friends on your days off, keep one regular daytime activity (the gym, a club, school pick up on certain days), and look out for the low mood that can creep in during the winter months. If it does not lift, talk to your GP.
Switching between nights and days
On your first day off, many people sleep for a few hours after the last shift, then stay up until a normal bedtime. Rotating shifts that move forward (days, then lates, then nights) are generally easier on the body than ones that go backwards. If you have a say in the rota, it is worth raising.
Is nights right for you?
Night shift pay is usually higher, and some people genuinely prefer the quieter pace. But if you have a health condition such as diabetes, epilepsy or a sleep disorder, or if you are pregnant, talk to your GP before taking on nights, and tell your employer so the risk assessment covers you. New and expectant mothers can be moved off nights if a doctor or midwife certifies it is necessary.
What to do next
- Sort the bedroom: blackout, earplugs, a fan.
- Pack food for the next night shift instead of buying it.
- Ask your employer when your night worker health assessment is due.
- Looking for nights? Search the jobs, every advert shows the pay including night rates where offered.
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