Dr. Michael Grandner

Or even a strategic nap, like while you're on a shift, you can get a little bit of a nap and sometimes be able to function.

Sometimes...

You're too much in the middle of your biological night.

And that one little nap, it's like you're starving and you only get one bite.

And sometimes that's a little worse.

Everyone's a little different.

But think of a nap like a snack and use it strategically like you'd strategically use a snack to stave off hunger and to make it through a shift.

Right.

Well, that too, because then a lot of times you could be drinking a lot of caffeine on your shift, but then you get home and you can't sleep.

Right.

And which makes you more tired on your next shift.

So how should shift workers use coffee?

Strategically.

I mean, you should use it as, think of it as, I will drink coffee.

In about 30 minutes, it'll have its peak effectiveness.

And I, in about six, for at least the next six hours, I will not be in a sleep window.

And so the higher the dose, the longer that window goes.

So you might want to caffeinate at the start of the shift, but not in the second half.

So mostly, the answer to that question is like mostly no.

Traveling a couple time zones is totally different than traveling a bunch of time zones.