By Kathryn Pruett
Students who work graveyard shifts may make more money, but they may also be doing damage to their health.
BYU On-Campus Employment for graveyard positions include security, donut fryer, telephone information and technology, and custodial.
Mary O''Neil, Student Employment Manager, said custodial takes up most the majority of on-campus graveyard employment positions.
The BYU On-Campus Employment Office did not have a specific statistic for the number of graveyard positions available for students. O''Neil said those statistics could not be tracked.
'Because the number of available positions changes from semester to semester there is no way the employment office can track those statistics,' O''Neil said.
While students are offered a higher pay to work the graveyard positions, some may find it harder than they expected.
Patty Ravett, Director of the Nursing Learning Center, said if students are not careful with their mix matched sleeping patterns, they could put added stresses on their bodies.
'A lot of it has to do with biorhythms and how the body reacts,' Ravett said.
Students who are not used to staying awake during the early hours of the morning may find their bodies reacting to this new stress in many different ways.
New stresses placed on students who frequently change their sleep wake cycles include; circadian rhythm changes, how your body functions on a day-to-day basis, your body temperature cycles, secretion of your hormones within your body on a regular schedule, and vigilance.
Ravett said that while students may feel fine, vigilance is also often affected. Vigilance is how a person''s body reacts to different tasks while under stress. This would include not only feeling awake, but having to perform tasks with alertness and precision.
According to Ravett these symptoms associated with an irregular sleep pattern are comparable to jet lag.
When a person experiences jet lag they require two days to adjust to the new sleep wake cycles Ravett said. Ravett also said jet lag may require up to five days for a person''s body temperature cycle to adjust.
'It can take up to a whole week to adjust for jet lag. Think if people are doing this all the time switching back and forth with their sleeping patterns,' Ravett said.
The best advice Ravett could offer students who work late nights and then attend class would be to have a sleep schedule and then stick with it.
'Have a routine everyday, even on your day off,' Ravett said. Ravett said that these patterns help your body adjust its sleep wake cycle, but do not fully correct the problem. Ravett said that despite the advice, most students do not develop a schedule and stick with it.
'Most students are trying to burn the candle at both ends,' Ravett said.