People working night shifts may experience symptoms such as decreased appetite, dizziness, and fatigue. Besides the varying degrees of discomfort during their night shifts, they also find it difficult to sleep well during the day at home. For this reason, many people are quite concerned about working night shifts. Let's explore how to alleviate these symptoms through diet.
According to Sun Chengzhi, director of the Nutrition Department at Dalian Central Hospital, these worries are actually unnecessary. As long as nutrition is well-managed and self-regulation is practiced, discomforts like dizziness, fatigue, and low spirits can be relieved.
The reason for night shift reactions is that the body's biological rhythms struggle to synchronize with the changes in the external natural environment.
First and foremost, night shift workers should try to get enough rest, ensuring 8 hours of sleep. It's best to lie down for a while after their shift ends.
In terms of diet, it's important to have a variety of dishes, paying attention to their color, aroma, and flavor, and pairing them with sour and other seasonings to stimulate appetite. Meal times should be regular. You shouldn't have one large meal and then sleep all day, nor should you go to sleep on an empty stomach. For those on long night shifts, a snack should be had midway to replenish the energy consumed. Additionally, to maintain normal vision, one can eat more foods rich in Vitamin A, such as animal liver, dairy products, and eggs. Vitamin A is a component of the light-sensitive material in visual cells, and a deficiency can lead to a decline in night vision.
In night shift meals, one should eat more foods rich in protein. After a night shift, the focus should be on easily digestible liquid and carbohydrate foods, such as soy milk, vegetable soup, and sugary snacks. This way, it can meet the energy and fluid metabolism needs for daytime sleep without causing bloating from excessive fat and protein intake, which would interfere with sleep.
Of course, no matter how you look at it, changing one's normal daily routine will inevitably bring some discomfort. However, humans have a great capacity to adapt to environmental changes. To tap into this potential, in addition to careful dietary management, it also relies on the self-adjustment of one's mental state.