Working nights

Working nights is part of the job in hospitals, ambulance and police services, fire control rooms, prisons and residential care. The law gives night workers extra protection: average hours limited to 8 in every 24, and a free health assessment before you start and regularly after. Pay is usually higher for night hours, through unsocial hours enhancements in the NHS and night allowances or shift premiums elsewhere. The main cost is to your sleep and, over years, possibly to your health.

Who counts as a night worker

In law, night time is normally 11pm to 6am, though a contract can set a different seven-hour period that includes midnight to 5am. You count as a night worker if you regularly work at least three hours during that period. Someone on a rotating rota with occasional nights may or may not qualify depending on how often they work them; someone on permanent or frequent nights does.

Your legal rights

Night workers should not work more than an average of 8 hours in each 24-hour period, usually averaged over 17 weeks. Unlike the 48-hour weekly limit, you cannot opt out of this one, although there are exceptions for some services, including hospitals and other jobs needing round-the-clock cover, where equivalent rest must then be given.

Your employer must offer you a free health assessment before you start night work and on a regular basis afterwards. It is usually a questionnaire, reviewed by occupational health, with a follow-up if needed. You do not have to take it, but it gives you a formal record if nights start affecting your health. If a doctor says night work is causing you health problems, the employer should offer you suitable day work where possible.

The usual rest rules apply as well: 11 hours’ rest between working days, 24 hours off a week or 48 hours a fortnight, and a 20-minute break when you work more than six hours. Night work rules sets these out in more detail, along with the special rules for young workers.

Night work and pregnancy

If you are pregnant or have recently given birth, your employer must carry out a risk assessment once you tell them in writing. If you have a medical certificate saying night work could affect your health or your baby’s, the employer must offer suitable day work on the same terms or, if none is available, suspend you on full pay. Rights while pregnant at work covers the wider protections.

Health effects

Working against your body clock disrupts sleep, and sleeping during the day is usually shorter and lighter than sleeping at night. The NHS website lists the effects of regular poor sleep, including a higher risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes over time, as well as effects on mood and concentration. Long-term night work has been studied as a possible risk factor for some conditions. The evidence is still developing, so it is sensible to take the free health assessment seriously and to see your GP about anything that worries you.

The short-term effects are often more noticeable: tiredness on the drive home, digestive problems from eating at odd times, and missing family and social life. Switching back to days on your days off can be the hardest part.

Managing sleep on nights

General NHS sleep advice applies, adapted for daytime sleep:

• keep the bedroom dark with blackout blinds or an eye mask, and quiet with earplugs or white noise
• go to bed as soon as practical after a night shift, rather than staying up for hours
• avoid caffeine in the last few hours of the shift
• eat a light meal before sleeping instead of a large one
• tell your household when you need to sleep and ask them not to wake you

Before your first night, a nap in the afternoon helps. After the last night of a block, a short sleep in the morning and an early night usually brings you back to days more quickly than staying awake all day. If you are often unable to sleep, or feel drowsy during the day when not working, speak to occupational health or your GP; the NHS page on insomnia explains the options.

Pay for night work

In the NHS, Agenda for Change staff in bands 1 to 7 get an enhancement for hours worked at night, on top of their basic hourly rate. The percentage depends on your band and whether the night falls on a weekday or a weekend. Enhancements are paid during annual leave and sickness if you regularly work nights, so your holiday pay should reflect them. The details are in the NHS Terms and Conditions Handbook; NHS unsocial hours enhancements explains how the rates apply.

Councils, police staff, prisons and care providers each have their own arrangements. Night allowances can be a percentage on top of basic pay, a fixed sum per shift, or built into a higher annual salary for permanent night staff. Check the contract or ask HR before you accept a night post, because the difference between employers can be large. There is no legal right to extra pay for night work; it depends on your contract.

Night pay is taxed in the same way as basic pay. To see how much a pattern of nights adds after tax and National Insurance, use the take-home pay calculator.

If you are thinking about a pattern that mixes nights with days, NHS shift patterns explains how rotas are put together and what you can request.