Roughly one in six working adults is awake while the rest of us sleep. Almost nothing useful has been written for them.

The advice night workers get is written for day workers. Fix your sleep schedule. Go to bed earlier. Get some sun. Follow it and you get the particular demoralisation of doing what you were told and getting nothing for it.

WORKING WHILE THE WORLD SLEEPS starts from where you actually are: on nights, for now, because the money is better or the work is the work you want or the alternative does not exist in your town.

What it covers

• The clock you cannot argue with what your body is actually doing, and which parts can be shifted
• The night owl myth, and why believing it causes real harm
• Building a room for daytime sleep light, noise, heat, and the household
• Naps, caffeine timing, and the drive home, which is the most dangerous part of the job
• Rotating shifts, and why the direction of rotation matters more than anyone tells you
• The social arithmetic days off, relationships, and coming off nights
• A troubleshooting appendix, and one for the people who live with a night worker

The health risks are in here, stated honestly and in proportion. They are not used as a cudgel. You already know the work is hard; this is a book about what to do about it.