“Can splitting the timing of sleep reduce the adverse effects of night shift work?”

It’s an interesting question, and one which was put forward by Dr Melinda Jackson who I met at the recent Sleep Down Under Conference here in Brisbane a few weeks ago.  Melinda is a researcher and registered psychologist, specialising in sleep disorders based at RMIT University in Melbourne, and has undertaken a lot of research in this area both here in Australia and overseas.

Given many shift workers often experience various degrees of broken and/or disrupted sleep depending on their location and occupation, this episode has been dedicated to discussing all things to do with alertness, productivity, performance and health when it comes to split sleep.

What you’re going to learn:

• What exactly is split or segmented sleep?
• The two processes of sleep, and why we need to have both in order to sleep well
• Does undertaking split sleep pose any additional risks on our level of alertness or health?
• What are some of the benefits to splitting in two segments?
• Naps before nightshift – are they a good thing?
• Are we putting too much pressure on ourselves to sleep in one chunk?

Links mentioned on the podcast:
Australasian Sleep Association
RMIT University