Rochdale shift workers to benefit from innovative sleep project

Shift workers in the borough of Rochdale will benefit from an innovative project offering free face-to-face consultations with sleep experts sharing advice on mental and physical health.

Night Club, which will be located at Rochdale Infirmary, is the largest direct engagement programme in the UK which brings together shift workers and sleep researchers with the aim of improving their sleep.

Shift workers will have the opportunity to learn about the impact of light on achieving effective spells of sleep, how diet can impact on rest and alertness, and how insufficient sleep negatively impacts the body clock.

Night Club opens for three days on Saturday 26 October, the day the clocks go back. On an annual basis, even this minor disruption can negatively impact how we feel and function during the day and is a particularly challenging for shift workers.

 

 

The project is a joint venture from Rochdale Borough Council, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), creative consultancy The Liminal Space, and the University of Manchester.

Councillor Sara Rowbotham, cabinet member for health and wellbeing at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “We are really looking forward to welcoming Night Club to Rochdale. This innovative project offers support to the many shift workers across the borough who do such vital jobs. It is really important that we offer them the chance to stop and think about their own wellbeing so they can stay well.”

One in five workers do shift work, which disrupts sleep and the body clock. These changes increase the risk of common diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.

Night Club aims to find ways to protect people from the possible ill-effects of shift work, explaining how the body clock, and sleep work, and helping people to manage their lives around shift work.

The Centre for Biological Timing at the University of Manchester is the largest research grouping in Europe working on the body clock. Problems with body clock timing are linked to many medical problems, including cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, inflammatory conditions, neurodegeneration, mental health, and cancer.

Sarah Douglas, director of Liminal Space said: “One in eight people now work nightshifts, approximately 11.5 per cent of the UK’s workforce, and this is increasing as more companies operate around the clock to keep our 24/7 ‘on-demand’ society running.

“The negative impact night shift work has on health and productivity is well documented and Night Club provides a direct intervention to empower this crucial, but often forgotten, part of our workforce with the latest sleep health advice.”

Shift workers can book onto the Rochdale Infirmary sessions via eventbrite now:

• www.thenightclubrochdale.eventbrite.co.uk