Understanding Serotonin and Why it’s So Important for the Night Shift Worker

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If you work the night shift, then you are likely no stranger to experiencing sleep deprivation or insomnia, coping with stress, and even wrestling with mental health issues like anxiety and depression.

While there is not a simple, one-size-fits-all solution to these common situations that affect night shift workers, there is a chemical that has been shown to make a remarkable difference when it comes to an individual’s mental, physical, and sleep health: serotonin.

If you are tired of the negative toll that working the night shift is having on you and your health, you should make sure your body is producing enough serotonin.

What is Serotonin?

Serotonin is a chemical that is produced in the enteric and central nervous systems that sends signals to different cells. This chemical plays a significant role in your body’s ability to function properly. It is known for helping to stabilize moods, reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, promote bone and cell health, influence sleeping and waking, improve blood clotting, and combat insomnia.

Serotonin is particularly important for night shift workers for three main reasons:

1. Serotonin improves sleep. Working the night shift will disrupt your circadian rhythm, which can lead to sleep disorders like insomnia. If you’re having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, serotonin can help. Serotonin signals to the brain in order to let it know when an individual should be awake or asleep. With healthy levels of serotonin, your body will be able to adjust to your schedule and your quality of sleep will improve.
2. Serotonin is a mood stabilizer. When you work at night and sleep during the day, you have to work hard in order to get adequate sleep and exposure to sunlight. This non-traditional work schedule can cause night shift workers to feel down or experience mood disorders like depression. Serotonin helps fight against these mood disorders by helping individuals feel happier and calmer and reducing feelings of anxiety and depression.
3. Serotonin supports digestive health. It’s not abnormal for night shift workers to gain a pound or two when they start working nights. The night shift is not always conducive to healthy eating and exercise habits, and night shift workers tend to have more trouble fighting weight gain than those who work traditional hours. Serotonin helps aid the metabolism and it supports digestive and gastrointestinal health, making it easier for the body to process food and fight against weight gain.

Thanks to its ability to regulate your mood, your metabolism, and your sleep habits, serotonin is one of the most important chemicals your body needs to function while you work nights.

In addition to reaping the health benefits that come from serotonin, night shift workers also want to monitor their serotonin levels in order to avoid serotonin deficiency, which has been linked to unhealthy sleep patterns, inability to focus, headaches, digestive issues, mood disorders, and myriad other health issues.

It is important that everyone, especially those that work the night shift, make a conscious effort to maintain adequate levels of serotonin in order to combat mental and physical health issues.

Where Does Serotonin Come From?

When many people think of serotonin, they think of the role it plays in the brain helping improve cognitive function and memory while aiding with mood-regulation. However, the vast majority of the body’s serotonin can be found in the gut, not the brain.

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In fact, 95% of the body’s serotonin is produced by gut bacteria, which is why taking probiotics can help aid with serotonin production.

The gut has its own nervous system, the enteric nervous system, which helps support digestion and gastrointestinal health. It also produces neurochemicals like serotonin that influence your metabolism and your mood.

Serotonin comes from the amino acid tryptophan. When you eat foods that contain tryptophan, the enteric nervous system converts it into serotonin, which helps the body function in a safe and healthy manner.

This is why it is important as a night shift worker to control your diet, even when it is tempting to grab fast food or a snack from a vending machine during your shift. Eating too many processed or unhealthy foods will not only make you feel sluggish, increase the likelihood that you will gain weight, and increase your risk of developing health conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but it will also lower your serotonin levels.

When your body is low on serotonin, it can have disastrous effects on your mental and physical well-being, so it is crucial that you are aware of how your eating habits and your enteric nervous system play a role in your serotonin production.

Increasing Your Serotonin Levels

If your serotonin levels are low, there are steps you can take to help improve your serotonin levels and eliminate your risk of experiencing serotonin deficiency.

There are three easy ways to increase your serotonin levels: diet, exercise, and supplements. When you combine these three methods, you are sure to not only boost your serotonin levels, but also to maintain a healthier lifestyle, which is critical for you to thrive while working the night shift.

Eating a Tryptophan-Rich Diet

While you cannot directly gain serotonin from food sources, you can eat foods that are high in tryptophan, an amino acid that your brain is able to convert to serotonin. Eating foods that contain the amino acid tryptophan will give your brain and your gut more opportunities to turn the tryptophan into serotonin, thus increasing the amount of serotonin in your central and enteric nervous systems.

Here are a few foods that you can incorporate into your diet in order to elevate your tryptophan (and ultimately your serotonin) levels:

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• Eggs
• Cheese
• Tomatoes
• Tofu
• Salmon
• Pineapples
• Plums
• Whole milk
• Tuna
• Chicken
• Oats
• Nuts
• Bananas
• Leafy greens
• Beans
• Turkey
• Brown rice

Eating foods that are high in tryptophan, especially when combined with carbs that improve amino acid absorption, will give you a serotonin boost. When you eat carbs, it increases your insulin production, which in turn improves your body’s ability to absorb amino acids like tryptophan and convert this tryptophan into serotonin.

Adding the foods above to your diet will help. Try eating eggs with a side of whole-wheat toast for breakfast, eating a leafy green salad topped with chicken and nuts for lunch, or eating salmon with a side of brown rice for dinner. You will have a healthy meal and help stabilize your mood at the same time.

As a night shift worker, you are prone to weight gain, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other related health issues. Planning out and packing your meals instead of eating highly processed vending machine snacks or fatty fast food meals can significantly improve your physical health, especially if the foods you eat contain tryptophan.

Exercising Daily

While it is mainly known for providing mood-lifting endorphins, exercise is also a natural way to boost serotonin levels in your brain. Any type of aerobic exercise, like walking or biking, will release tryptophan and serotonin in the body, in turn helping you feel happier and less stressed.

Here are a few aerobic exercises to consider incorporating into your daily routine:

• Hiking
• Jogging
• Running
• Swimming
• Skating
• Jumping rope
• Dancing
• Kickboxing
• Playing basketball, soccer, or other sports
• Cycling
• Walking

For the best results, try and aim for at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity every day.

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For added health benefits, try making sure that you go outside while exercising so that you can soak in the sun and increase your serotonin and vitamin-D levels through natural exposure to light.

Taking Supplements

There are many different dietary supplements you can take if you are looking to increase your serotonin levels.

Here are three of the main supplements that you should consider taking:

• Tryptophan supplements: These supplements, often referred to as L-tryptophan, increase the amount of tryptophan that is in your body, increasing the chances that this amino acid will cross the blood-brain barrier to be converted into serotonin.
• 5-HTP: These supplements contain hydroxytryptophan, which is a chemical byproduct of L-tryptophan. 5-HTP helps increase the production of serotonin in the body’s central nervous system.
• Probiotics: Because serotonin is largely produced in the gut, probiotics can increase serotonin levels. Probiotics in the gastrointestinal tract help produce tryptophan, which is then turned into serotonin.

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Each of these supplements increases the level of tryptophan in the blood and the chances that this tryptophan will cross the blood-brain barrier and become serotonin. When you take any of these types of serotonin supplements, be careful not to take more than your doctor recommends. Too much serotonin can lead to confusion, muscle twitching, high blood pressure, nausea, diarrhea, or seizures.

Whether you decide to increase the amount of time you spend doing aerobic exercise daily, or you decide to incorporate more tryptophan-rich foods into your diet, taking dietary supplements can make a noticable difference when it comes to raising your serotonin levels.

Working the night shift comes with a host of unique challenges that can wear down on your physical and mental health by affecting your sleep, digestion, and your mood. Combat these challenges naturally by helping your enteric and central nervous systems produce greater amounts of serotonin.

Serotonin will help improve your quality of sleep, reduce feelings and symptoms of depression, and support your physical health as you continue to work a challenging schedule.

The content in this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, diet, or supplements prior to making any changes. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you read in this publication (or the internet in general).

Night Shift Nutrition is a community focused on living your best life, while working nights. We do this by sharing our experiences and science based educations. The point is to not only survive working nights but to thrive! If this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of you can apply to join our facebook group or subscribe to our email list.