MMMiii!

Who ever said that being on Night Shift is healthy?
Who ever said that being on a different shift every month or every two weeks is healthy?
I don’t think anyone would.

Being on a shifting schedule is unhealthy, yes, but what kind of unhealthiness? Especially if you’re on Night Shift, and your schedule only changes with an 8-hour difference, but still basically at night?

While waiting for UnionBank to open this morning at Starbucks, I was so bored that I read the papers (Yes, OMG! I can read!). I just found out that the country is having a food shortage and that the Ifugao Rice Terraces was selected as a UN treasure or something and that they’re kind of renegotiating our country boundaries for the Kalayaan Group/Spratly Islands, and some other stuff. Well, the only one I really read on was the Ifugao Rice Terraces.

What caught my eye was an article about how being on Night Shift can cause sleep deprivation (no, really?) and the health problems that come with it. What really piqued my interest in the article was how people had a higher risk of obesity when they’re on Night Shift. Because you get more hungry often when you’re on Night Shift and something to do about your metabolism and body clock and what not. I do notice that always, after my shift, I’m so hungry. Like I’m starving. So I grab something to eat sometimes on the way home, and when I arrive home, I’m going to eat again because Mama cooked breakfast to me (I know I could say ‘no,’ but who the hell can say ‘no’ to Filipino breakfast?).

Double breakfast.

I also think feel that I’m getting a tad heavier. *sigh* *starts blaming getting fatter on Night Shift*

But anyways, there were tips on coping with Shift Work.

Coping with shift work

Sleep experts suggest various ways to cope with unusual work and sleep schedules.

• Regular hours: Keep the same sleep schedule on days off from work.
  • No really? It’s past five pm, going on sick six and I’m still awake. Although… I really should be waking up at this time on normal work days. I time myself. I try to sleep by 10am, not later than 11am. I wake up at 4pm, not later than 5pm. That’s on normal days, but today is my day off…
• Strategic napping: Studies show naps of 20 minutes to two hours — either just before a shift or during a shift — can improve alertness and performance at work.
  • Strategy? Like whenever I’m Sleeping at Work? I’m really trying to avoid that now. What I do is if I get done early with bath and dinner, I sleep until 5:30pm or 5:45pm.
• Bright light: Exposure to bright lights during the first half of a shift may help fight fatigue later in the shift.
  • I’m not really sure about this. It’s always usually bright there, so I don’t really know the difference if I started in a dark place or bright one.
• Light restriction: Avoiding bright lights in the morning (such as by wearing sunglasses on the way home and sleeping in a very dark room) can help night-shift workers sleep better during the day.
  • I think my mother noticed that I’m still really having a hard time sleeping in the day even after she put curtains on my windows to kind of reduce the sunlight so I could sleep, so she put on thicker
    curtains. I really love my mother. Now it’s dark … ish…. here, but it’s really a LOT of improvement. I just got hooked up on J-Drama what’s why I’m still awake, not because of the light.
  • I have these neat cheapo shades that I use a lot these days. I bought 2 expensive ones but they weren’t dark enough. One was P200 and the other one was P250. This uber neat shades was just P55. One can usually find the best buy in cheapo places like Dakki or Daisan or whatever you call it, or Uncle Ben’s Store… Ugh, I can’t remember. But it’s UBL sunglasses and I got it in a Japan Home+Dakki+Daisan(?) Store.
    
• Melatonin: Supplements can promote daytime sleep when taken an hour or two before bedtime.
  • Haven’t tried. Probably will not try.
• Modafinil: This medication, brand name Provigil, was approved in 2004 for the treatment of shift-related sleep disorder. Taken just before a shift, it can enhance alertness at night, studies have shown.
  • Haven’t tried. Probably will not try.
• Caffeine: Caffeine has been shown to counteract drops in performance levels at night.
  • I love coffee. Except that coffee hates me. I have hyper-acidity and coffee gives me diarrhea as well. But sometimes, I do feel the need, and sometimes it doesn’t really wake me up, but it’s good anyway.

Sources: Dr. Diane Boivin; American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
c/o Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times

Stolen from … Darn I forgot. I’m not even sure if it’s Manila Times. -_-;; But thank you, one of the local news papers. I do remember the page. It’s on E4.

The ones in italics are just my side comments. Don’t pay too much attention to them.

Anyway, my first thought of this was, “This should be shown to all Call Center Agents. This should be circulated so that we can all stay healthy.” A lot of my teammates have fallen ill and may resign because of health issues. It’s really sad.

So… to all you call center agents out there who are on shifting schedules or always on night shift, make sure that you get enough sleep.

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Finally, today, I was able to get two other valid IDs. I’ve been having this problem for so long now. I had to get money from xoom.com before but stupid BDO was asking for two IDs even if it was written on the site that I could have 1 valid ID and a password. The only (supposed to be) valid ID I had that time was my school ID which they said that since the semester ended about a month ago, it’s not valid anymore. I thought to myself, “One day, I’m going to have a LOT of damned valid IDs and I’m going to slap it on your face.” I went to a pawnshop that also does xoom transactions and I was able to get my money.

Five months later, aside from my company ID, I now have a TIN Card and a Postal ID. I applied for them last week, and surprisingly, for government IDs, they were prompt. They said one week/3 days, and I got them on the date they told me.

At BIR, I almost had to wait. I arrived there a little past 7am and they still weren’t really fully open. So I bought some donuts and when I came back, they were letting people in already. I asked one of the people there where I could get my ID and he told me to go in the office in the back. I went there and I asked again where I could get my ID, the guy there told me that it’s still early and sit down back in the front and wait. On my way there, the first guy I spoke with asked me if I already got my ID coz I was so quick, so I told him that I was told that it was still early. He stood up and said, “If it’s still early, why is he there wasting electricity then?” then told me to follow him and then after two minutes of looking for my ID, he finally found it.

I had it laminated just outside BIR and ate Pancit while I was having some documents photocopied and the ID being laminated. I was good to go to UnionBank.

Last week, I applied online for UnionBank’s CyberAccount and to get the card, I needed to present two valid IDs. I only had one at that time, so with my newly laminated TIN Card, I could finally get it.

However, I was more than an hour early, so I hung out in Starbucks and read the papers until UnionBank opened. So now, I have my Debit Card but it will be activated next week. But still, at least I’ve got it now so I could soon get my PayPal money!

If only they would accept my school ID, then I would’ve applied for it sooner. But no. They didn’t. It wasn’t valid anymore.

Valid IDs are stupid. They won’t accept my University ID because I graduated already. It’s got my picture. It’s got my signature. It’s got a barcode. What more do they want? Just because I’m not enrolled for this semester (because I don’t need to anymore), they won’t accept it. That’s real bull. To support my identity, I also have my birth certificate, Barangay, Police, and NBI Clearance (the last one being a real biatch to get). I have my TIN application form, my pink SSS application form which I heard is supposed to be accepted as an ID as well. What kind of documents do they want to prove my identity? It’s just really stupid.

Such a stupid world.

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