Have Early Dinners, Eat All Your Meals On Time: Nmami Agarwal Gives Diet Tips For Night Shift Workers

Night shift workers should have light dinners to prevent feeling drowsy

Night shifts can be quite challenging in terms of meeting your nutritional requirements. Not only does it disrupt your sleep cycle, it also affects your health and may increase risk of heart disease, obesity and gastrointestinal problems, as researchers have found. It does take a few weeks, sometimes even a month to get used to working in night shifts and adapting your body to changes in routine. Taking care of your health and nutrition is even more important for people who work in night shifts. It helpsa in preventing nutritional deficiencies, insomnia and other health risks associated with working in night shifts.

Nutritionist Nmami Agarwal recently took to Instagram to talk about some food choices that can make working in night shifts easier and also ensure good health.

Also read: Night Shifts Can Affect Your Bladder And Overall Health: Here's How

Diet tips for people in night shifts

We often feel drowsy when we work at night, she says in her IGTV. Maintaining the right food choices can help you beat this drowsiness.

"Our body is designed to work during the day and rest at night. Working at night can result in certain complications, in terms of both stress and weight," says Nmami.

Sleep, diet and eating your meals on time are the three things you need to focus on when working in night shifts.

1. Start your day with dinner

Usually, the day starts with a wholesome breakfast. But if you work in night shifts, you need to begin your day with a healthy dinner. Make sure that you finish your dinner by 7.30-8 pm. Avoid delaying it till midnight.

Start your day with a healthy, homemade dinner when working in night shifts
Photo Credit: iStock

2. Have a lighter dinner

Since night shifts can make you experience drowsiness, it is important that you have light dinner and avoid foods that are heavy on your stomach. Eat fibre-rich foods, whole grains, and protein-rich foods that will curb your hunger and cravings for the night.

Also read: Skipping Dinner For Weight Loss? Here's Why You Must Stop This Practice Instantly

3. Keep some healthy food with you

After a light dinner, you are bound to feel hungry on later parts of the night when working in night shifts. Coffee, instant noodles, chips, biscuits and other sugary/packaged foods are your worst enemies when you are working in night shifts. To prevent munching on these carb-heavy foods that can disrupt your blood sugar levels and cause weight gain, you must keep some healthy snacking options with you. Nuts and seeds, roasted chanas, peanuts, ghee-roasted makhanas, fruits, puffed rice, etc can make for healthy snack options that you can munch on to beat hunger pangs in night shifts.

Keep healthy snacks with you to prevent munching on junk food
Photo Credit: iStock

"Healthy snacking can help in managing weight and also prevent binge eating," says Nmami.

Along with your diet, it is also important to get proper sleep when you are working in night shifts. It is definitely going to be struggling initially, but efforts need to be made to get proper sleep when working in night shift.

Also read: 6 Most Effective Snacks for Weight Loss

(Nmami Agarwal is nutritionist at Nmami Life)

Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.