What Shift Work Takes From Your Sleep—and How to Protect Your Recovery
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You finish a long shift as the rest of the world is starting its day. You may feel exhausted, but your body still has to switch into sleep mode while the sun is up, messages are coming in and life carries on around you.
That’s the challenge of shift work: your work schedule can run against the timing your body naturally uses for sleep and wakefulness. A good recovery routine can help you protect the sleep opportunity you do have.
The world relies on shift workers
Hospitals need nurses and paramedics overnight. Security teams, transport workers, warehouse staff, utility crews and hospitality teams keep services moving while most people are asleep.
In the United States, about 22.4 million wage and salary workers—14.8%—usually worked a non-daytime schedule in 2024–25. That included about 5.1 million night-shift workers. Non-daytime schedules were especially common in leisure and hospitality, transportation and utilities, and wholesale and retail trade. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
These jobs matter. The goal isn’t to suggest that people should simply stop working nights. It’s to recognize that keeping the world running around the clock can make it harder to get consistent, restorative sleep—and that workers deserve routines and support built around the hours they actually work.
Why sleeping after a night shift can be difficult
Your body has an internal 24-hour timing system, often called the circadian rhythm. Light and darkness help set that rhythm. At night, the body prepares for sleep; as morning arrives, daylight and other signals encourage wakefulness.
After a night shift, you’re asking your body to sleep during the day, when light, noise, family responsibilities and your internal clock may all be pushing in the opposite direction. The result can be a shorter or more interrupted sleep period, even when you’re tired.
The effects can build up. In a CDC/NIOSH analysis, insomnia—defined in that study as poor sleep quality alongside difficulty with sleep-related daily activities—was reported by 18.5% of night-shift workers, compared with 8.4% of day workers. (CDC/NIOSH)
Research has also linked shift work with fatigue, poorer sleep and a higher risk of accidents. Longer-term studies have found associations with health concerns such as metabolic and cardiovascular conditions, depression and some cancers. These are associations across populations; they don’t mean shift work alone causes a particular person’s health outcome. (CDC/NIOSH)
What you can do to protect your recovery
You don’t need a perfect routine. Start by making your main sleep period easier to protect.
1. Give sleep a proper window
Most adults need at least seven hours of sleep regularly. If your roster makes one uninterrupted block difficult, think about how you can protect your main sleep period and make it as consistent as your schedule allows. (AASM and Sleep Research Society)
2. Make your bedroom work for daytime sleep
Aim for a room that is dark, quiet, cool and comfortable. Blackout curtains or an eye mask can help block daylight; earplugs, a fan or white noise can soften household and neighborhood sounds. Let the people you live with know when you’re sleeping, and silence non-urgent phone notifications.
NIOSH recommends a dark, quiet and comfortable sleep environment for workers who need to sleep outside conventional nighttime hours. (CDC/NIOSH sleep guidance)
3. Plan your wind-down and caffeine
Give yourself time to come down from the shift before bed. A shower, a light meal or snack, and a repeatable wind-down routine can help mark the transition from work to rest.
Caffeine can help with alertness during a shift, but using it close to your planned sleep time can make it harder to fall asleep. Set a caffeine cut-off that leaves several hours before bed, adjusting for how sensitive you are. (CDC/NIOSH)
4. Match your plan to your roster
If you work a stable run of nights, consistent sleep timing may be achievable. If your shifts rotate often, fully changing your body clock to match every roster change may not be realistic. In that case, focus on the basics you can repeat: protect your sleep window, manage light around your sleep period and keep a wind-down routine ready.
Melatonin, vitamin D and other supplements
Supplements can support a routine, but there is no single supplement every shift worker needs. The most useful question is: what is your routine missing, and what does the evidence say that a supplement can reasonably support?
Melatonin: a sleep-timing signal
Melatonin is a hormone involved in the body’s timing of sleep. For some shift workers, the challenge is trying to sleep when their body clock is encouraging wakefulness.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s 2025 guideline conditionally suggests melatonin for adults with shift work disorder who have daytime sleep disturbance after night shifts. The recommendation is based on low or very low certainty evidence, so it isn’t a guarantee that melatonin will work the same way for everyone. Melatonin can also temporarily cause sleepiness and reduce alertness, so take it only when you’re preparing for sleep—not before driving, starting a shift or doing safety-sensitive work. (AASM guideline)
Somnia’s Nightshift Sleep Formula is designed around the after-shift wind-down. Its full two-capsule serving provides 2 mg of melatonin alongside valerian root, chamomile, passionflower, lemon balm, GABA and L-tryptophan. Follow the product directions and take it only when you have time set aside for sleep.
Ready to build a better after-shift routine? Explore Somnia’s Nightshift Sleep Formula.
Vitamin D: worth checking if daylight is limited
Working through the night can mean fewer opportunities to get sunlight, one factor involved in vitamin D production. A review of 13 studies found lower average vitamin D blood levels among shift workers, but the studies varied considerably and most participants came from Korea. That finding suggests vitamin D status may be worth discussing; it doesn’t mean every night worker needs a supplement. (Systematic review and meta-analysis)
If you spend little time outdoors or have other risk factors, ask a healthcare professional whether checking your vitamin D level makes sense. NIH guidance identifies limited sunlight exposure as one possible contributor to deficiency, while also noting that vitamin D supplementation isn’t a proven fix for every health concern. (NIH Office of Dietary Supplements)
Magnesium: not a requirement just because you work nights
There’s no universal “night shift supplement stack.” Magnesium may be relevant if your diet, health or a clinician’s advice points to a need, but taking it simply because you work nights won’t reset your body clock or replace enough time for sleep.
A practical place to start
Choose one sleep window you can protect after your next shift. Darken your room, set a caffeine cut-off and give yourself a few minutes to wind down before bed. If you’re considering a supplement, use it as part of that routine and follow its directions.
Shift work keeps essential parts of life running. Your recovery deserves a routine that works with your schedule, too. Somnia’s Nightshift Sleep Formula was made for people who need to wind down and sleep outside the usual 9-to-5 routine.
Shop Somnia’s Nightshift Sleep Formula
