How Shift Workers
Get Real Sleep.
Without Melatonin.
Even on Night Two.
Free · 30 pages
A free guide built on the first expert sleep guidelines ever written for shift workers, not 9-to-5ers. 18 rules from 68 sleep and shift work researchers, translated for real rosters. Put your name and email below and it lands in your inbox in a couple of minutes.
Every rule comes
with its why.
The 18 expert rules plus the numbers from the world's biggest sleep studies. All in the order you live it: before the block, on shift, the day sleep, and the times it goes sideways.
Pattern beats hours
In a study of 60,977 people, a steady sleep pattern predicted a long life better than long sleep did. How to build one when your roster keeps moving.
Split sleep counts
Why the experts signed off on splitting your 7 to 9 hours. One main sleep plus a top-up is a strategy, not a failure.
Bank it before nights
Sleep debt only pays back cents on the dollar. The 2 to 3 day play that banks sleep before a block of nights.
Caffeine maths
Coffee close to bed can cut up to 20% of your deep sleep, even when you fall asleep fine. Where your last cup should land.
The smoko move
Coffee, a 20 minute lie-down, cold water, bright light. The tested way through the wall mid-shift. In NASA's cockpit studies, a nap of about 26 minutes lifted alertness by 54%.
The cortisol flip
Your get-up-and-go hormone runs on a wave. Shift work just fires it at the wrong hours. Free ways to flip it, like the sunglasses move that starts your wind-down in the car park.
The room and the shower
The bedroom temperature the experts landed on. Plus why a warm shower before bed helps you drop off faster. 17 studies back it.
When sleep fights back
Lying there wide awake? The 20 minute rule, three free tools for a racing head, and the one-step plan after a bad sleep.
Naps and days off
The nap maths: 15 to 20 minutes sharpens you, about 90 pays back debt, and the zone in between can leave you worse. Plus the two-step that hands back your days off.
What the guidelines honestly say about melatonin, sleeping tablets and the beer after knock-off. And the whole guide in a 13-line recap you can print.
Source: Shriane et al. 2023, Sleep. doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsad182
You were never doing it wrong.
The rulebook was.
In 2023, a team at CQUniversity's Appleton Institute asked sleep and shift work experts from around the world about the usual sleep advice. Most said it doesn't fit shift workers.
So they wrote new rules. Over three rounds of voting, 68 experts agreed on 18 guidelines. They are the first sleep guidelines built for shift workers, not copied from office-hours advice. They even dropped the term "sleep hygiene". Your sleep was never dirty. It was just working a different roster.
This guide takes those 18 rules, adds the numbers from the world's biggest sleep studies, and puts it all in plain words.
Healthy sleep practices for shift workers: consensus sleep hygiene guidelines using a Delphi methodology
Shriane AE, Rigney G, Ferguson SA, Bin YS, Vincent GE
doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsad182 Plus the numbers from- Windred et al. 2024 · 60,977 people tracked
- Haghayegh et al. 2019 · 17 studies on warm showers and sleep
- Balban et al. 2023 · the Stanford breathing trial
- NASA · the cockpit nap studies
Sleep advice,
finally written
for shift workers.
The 18 expert rules plus the numbers behind them, in plain words. Free, and in your inbox in a couple of minutes.
Fueling Progress.
Sleep plays, offers and the odd giveaway. Built for people on rosters. No spam.
