Circadian health expert and medical scientist Logan Pendergrast, Ph.D., shares practical strategies to help shift workers improve sleep quality and maintain healthier rhythms. He explains how exposure to natural or bright artificial light can boost cortisol, suppress melatonin, and reinforce the body’s internal clock. Used at the right time, caffeine can temporarily block adenosine to reduce sleep pressure and increase alertness—though it should be avoided in the hours leading up to sleep.
Dr. Pendergrast also emphasizes the importance of creating an optimal sleep environment by keeping the bedroom cool, dark, and quiet, which helps regulate melatonin and cortisol levels. Finally, he highlights the role of meal timing: eating soon after waking can reset the body’s internal cues, while avoiding heavy meals close to bedtime prevents disruptions in temperature and sleep depth. Together, these strategies help counteract the challenges of irregular schedules and support healthier sleep–wake balance.
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So this brings us to our next factor
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which is air quality and ventilation. So
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in this science what we see is that when
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individuals sleep in a high CO2
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environment, what that means is carbon
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dioxide. It's a gas that we exhale. They
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have impaired cognition when they wake
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up. What this means is that their brains
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are less clear when they wake up. So
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what this reflects is is that the
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quality of the air in our environment is
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very important for the quality of our
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sleep. And fortunately there are ways to
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improve this. There's of course air
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filters which are most commonly and most
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effectively used um are hepailters and
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these can improve the efficiency of our
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sleep by improving the quality of our
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air. There's also plants which are less
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of a help than mechanical filters like
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air filters but they can improve the
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quality of our air. And just considering
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all of this and thinking of tips that
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can improve air quality, there's also
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just the simple method of keeping a
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window slightly open as we sleep. And
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what this can do is just allow for
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exchange of air to our internal and
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external environment, hopefully with
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minimal noise so that we can maintain a
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a more effective sleep quality by just
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controlling the quality of our air.
