Food advice for night shift

longwalks1

I'm going onto night shifts again soon and struggle to eat healthy every shift. I just crave chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks (dont all shoot me down). After some advice on something light, but filling and healthy.
Nothing too heavy that sits in my stomach that keeps me up through the morning when I should be sleeping

Any recommendations please? Really struggling

jackyann

Sympathies - been there and struggled with that.
Best I can suggest:
snack box: chunky salad ingredients, and one with chunks of fruit. I found putting nuts in the salady one and dried fruit in the fruity one gave them a sort of ballast that helped (I know btw this is not cheap, though Lidl are good)
Spanish tortilla omelette is nice cold - find the ingredient combination that works for you
Soup: at least you can be MSE with soup! Home-made in batches, chunky veges, pulses, and bits of chicken or similar. Bread with soup is filling, warming and healthy.
Work out your worst time and plan around it: eg: some colleagues could just have a bar of chocolate at the 3-4am dip and be fine. Some couldn't stop at one bar!
Do the same with your caffeine intake.

Edited to add: do you want the fizzy drinks for the caffeine, the sugar, or just the fizz? May help you work out what to do instead. Juice + fizzy water can give you a boost.

Also wanted to say that my first night shifts were at a hospital in sight of a famous London landmark. Whenever I see it, I remember my 4.30am bowl of cornflakes, sugar & milk that saw me through until 7.30 finish. The weird thing is that is the only time in my whole life I have ever enjoyed cornflakes, or that amount of sugar, or any breakfast cereal - it is the strange world of night working!

ArchangelEST

I suggest protein heavy snacks earlier in the shift - things like Beef Jerky, boiled eggs perhaps, Protein Shakes, Cottage Cheese - as that will promote wakefulness and neutralize hunger the best. A light salad is also nice for fiber content as it helps to stave off hunger even more.

But as you're nearing the end and want to start feeling sleepy so you can crash at home, switch to more high-carb foods - fruits/juices, bread and so forth.

I'd also pack along a couple of pieces of dark chocolate. A great choice for satisfying that sweet tooth.


Healthy/unhealthy however, are fairly undefined terms. There is nothing specific that makes one food healthy and another unhealthy. The impact any food has on your health is determined by the total diet (as all nutrients interact with one another and affect the body in different ways) and your activity levels and lifestyle, as well as enviornment.

And if bodyweight is an issue, that is determined by total caloric and nutrient quantities you consume every day and your activity levels and not dependent at all on the types of foods you eat.

rfclee1988

I do nightshifts and have done for 4 years, I just treat it like a normal day, make your meals and take them with you or I sometimes intermittent fast but its down to what works for you.