There are professions in which night shifts are common, as for example in hospitals, security companies or different services that do not close during the night. That is why it is necessary to have certain tricks with which to endure long night hours in the best possible way, being as efficient as you would be during the day.

One of the experts in the night guards is the nurse Teresa Wren, who has been working the night shift for 30 years, and has a list of the 4 simple tricks that can help you cope with your work at night. :

1. Do not eat sandwiches or sweets: unhealthy foods do not help you stay awake, and they will not help you overcome the fatigue that usually comes between 2 and 4 in the morning. The best thing is the caffeine and the walks outside with fresh air to wake us up.
2. Schedule your nights as if it were day: That is, look at the time you have work as if it were the same as anyone has during the day. Take a ‘lunch’ at midnight, and have the space well lit so as not to fall asleep. Caffeine always helps, but warns Wren that 5 hours before going to sleep you should stop taking it.
3. Fight against the diurnal human life cycle: we are diurnal mammals, that is, we live for the day and we sleep at night, therefore your body will try to be awake during the day. That’s why you should impose a schedule to go to bed for tomorrow and fight against your levels of the hormone cortisol, which work more at dawn time.
4. Take care of your body: Take herbal teas, and have a healthy diet, since it has been shown that working in the night shift produces greater risk of suffering from cardiovascular disorders, gastrointestinal problems, psychological problems such as anxiety or depression, and even cancer, according to The New York Times.

So, if you manage to adapt to your new night schedules, you will become part of that 30% of people in the industrialized countries who work at night, and maybe you prefer this shift than the morning one. According to Wren, there is more companionship at night , and people take more care of each other. With these 4 simple tricks you can face these night shifts and adapt to a life at night more easily.