Covid-19 Lockdown: Day 35

Today has been exhausting. I woke up at 2h45 and worked a shift that traumatizes me - even on my best day.

When I was 23 I started working a 4am shift. I got stuck on this rotation for years until I got married. When I got divorced I requested to stay on that shift because I preferred the anonymity of not being seen during the day.

But it is the same shift that would play a big role in depleting my cortisol in my thirties and render me pre-diabetic in 2018.

Cortisol is basically our body’s alarm system. It is a stress hormone that helps control blood sugar levels, regulate your metabolism, and reduce inflammation. Cortisol keeps you alert.

Today I had a brief chat with a colleague about how shift work can be so taxing on the body. It made me think of all the security guards who patrol our streets at night. Our night shift cleaners who make sure the office is neat when we get to work. All the doctors, caregivers and nurses on call, who are working the graveyard shift. GBV and police switchboards that are being monitored by real people, who have families, a home and a warm bed. Shift work is unavoidable in some fields and if you’re a 9-5 kind of office worker, spare a thought for the millions of people who wake up and go to bed at odd times for the love of the job.

And try not to watch us with envy when we leave the office at 10am, and say snarky shit like, “Nice, you work for only two hours. I work the whole day.” No one cares.

Whether I worked for 5 hours, 6 hours, 7 hours or 8 hours. It doesn’t matter. The fact is, I worked. I got up. I brushed my teeth and showered. I put on clothes and combed my hair and I showed up.