What are occupational priorities and how do they change over time? How are these related to real

step 1 Let's talk about shift work. First of all, what is shift work? What do I mean by this? Does this

What are occupational priorities and how do they change over...

Key Concepts

Occupational Priorities

Occupational priorities refer to the set of activities, roles, and tasks that an individual values and considers essential for their well-being and identity. These priorities influence how people allocate their time, energy, and resources, and are a core focus in understanding a person’s overall lifestyle, work, and personal fulfillment within various social and professional environments.

Dynamic Nature of Occupational Priorities

Occupational priorities are not static; they evolve over time due to personal growth, changing life circumstances, and evolving social and professional roles. Life transitions, such as entering a new career, starting a family, or retiring, often prompt individuals to reassess and shift what they value in their daily activities, leading to a reordering of priorities in response to new challenges and opportunities.

Reality Shock

Reality shock describes the disorientation and stress that occur when there is a significant gap between an individual’s expectations and the actual demands or conditions of a professional or real-world environment. It is especially relevant when there is a misalignment between one’s occupational priorities and the realities of the workplace, leading to a period of adjustment where former priorities may be questioned or reshaped in light of practical constraints and everyday experiences.

Transcript

00:01 Let's talk about shift work.

00:08 First of all, what is shift work? what do i mean by this? does this mean you go to a work and you have a shift? no, that's not exactly what i'm talking about here.

00:16 What i mean by shift work is the idea that your work happens at irregular hours.

00:23 So let's say this is a 24 -hour day.

00:26 This is morning.

00:28 This is evening.

00:30 This is noon.

00:34 And normal work happens probably from 9 to 5, right? normal work schedules happen in this middle of the day portion.

00:44 Shift work can happen at any time that doesn't really fall within these nine to five hours.

00:49 So sometimes your boss might make you, if you have shift work, maybe you're working the night ship, so you end up working, you know, 5 p .m.

00:58 All the way to 5 a .m.

01:01 Shift work can also sometimes mean doing a full, especially if you're a medical provider, it might mean being on call for the full entire 24 -hour period, 48 -hour period, in some cases.

01:18 Sometimes shift work means that at night you might have the same thing, and it might be consistently that you work 5 p .m.

01:28 To 5 a .m.

01:30 Every shift.

01:31 But some people have this where it's even more complicated, where maybe some days they're working 9 to 5, maybe on monday, wednesday, and friday, but then other times of the week, or other times of the week, maybe on saturday or sunday, they're expected to work these different hours.

01:55 So generally, all of these different types of shift work, anything that does not fall within this 9 to 5, are pretty bad for your health.

02:05 Why do you think that this might be problematic learning what we've learned about sleep? well, there's a handful of different reasons, probably too many for us to cover today, but i'm going to cover just a handful of them so you understand some of the major reasons why this might be problematic.

02:19 So if you remember, we've talked about something called circadian rhythms.

02:27 Or your circadian cycle, i think, is sometimes it's called as well.

02:30 The idea that, let's see if this is noon, again, this is midnight, and then we'll just say this is 11 p .m.

02:38 For ease.

02:39 So you have this idea that you have these different chemicals in your body circulating.

02:43 So in the morning, say you get up at 6 a .m.

02:49 Your melatonin levels will be at the lowest, about an hour before you wake up, and they will gradually rise throughout the day.

03:00 And then they sort of hit their peak and then they sort of level off.

03:06 In opposition of that, about an hour before you wake up, your cortisol levels or your stress hormone is about, its highest peak and it slowly declines throughout the day.

03:15 And then again, slowly rises until you wake up in the morning.

03:19 This is what our bodies naturally do with or without sunlight.

03:24 This is something that is maintained all of the time.

03:27 So what do you think would happen if you are expected to go to work starting right here? remember, your melatonin levels are increasing and they're almost at their highest and your stress levels are kind of at their lowest.

03:44 And you have to stay awake and alert all the way until this part of the day, until 6 a .m.

03:50 Let's say that you have to work this shift.

03:54 Can you see why this would be difficult? starting your shift, you would be at your sleepiest.

04:03 And then once you get home, your body is not naturally letting you fall asleep because your stress hormone is at its highest keeping you awake.

04:15 So that's one reason that shift work is really hard because your body's natural chemical cycles don't really like this.

04:31 Another perspective we could take is thinking about overall sleep health.

04:35 We know that there is a lot of different components that help us stay healthy with the type and quality of the sleep that we're getting.

04:42 So not just the timing of when our sleep is, but what about our quality of sleep? oops.

04:57 Quality of sleep.

04:59 So if you remember our sleep cycle here, we often go through a pretty predictable pattern of sleep.

05:18 So this is your wakefulness here.

05:23 And this would be considered, remember we have our non -rem sleep, or we have non -rem stages 1 through 3 and 4 is how they teach you guys.

05:37 Mostly they just lumped this stages three and four into slow wave sleep.

05:43 Then you also have your rem sleep...

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