Night shift work and nutrition: an overlooked occupational health risk? By Clémence Cleave and Andrew Picken
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ealthcare, emergency services, transport, construction, security and hospitality – night shift work is part of everyday life for many workers. In the UK, around 12% of the workforce regularly works at least three hours between 11pm and 6am ( TUC, 2017 ). Working against the body clock creates several organisational and health challenges that keep occupational health practitioners awake too: safety risks, reduced performance, and increased cardiometabolic and gastrointestinal problems. What can organisations do to minimise the impact of night work and support this workforce? Regular breaks, health checks, carefully planned schedules and recovery time are often high on the occupational health to do list. Yet there is another powerful lever that is too often underestimated and misused: nutrition. It is not well understood that the right diet can support concentration, focus, performance and recovery. And it also improves key long health markers such as blood glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as mood and anxiety.
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Workplace initiatives frequently stop at generic advice about healthy eating. Employees are told to “eat better ” without practical guidance on how and what to eat during night shifts. More importantly, these initiatives often fail to address the elephant in the room: the food environment and the reliance on convenience foods that many workers depend on to get through the night. This article explores nutrition as an occupational health issue and outlines practical ways organisations and OH teams can better support night shift workers.