Late night shifts are inevitable if you work in journalism, with weekly rotas planned in such a way that the newsroom is always staffed for a big breaking news story.
Being assigned the graveyard shift typically involves overhauling your daily routines to accommodate night-time work patterns – from going to bed at dawn to rejigging your meal times so ‘lunch’ is served after midnight.
Producers and journalists have shared what it’s like to work a late shift for broadcasters like the BBC and Sky News – working across radio and television – amid declining TV viewership figures.
Taking her followers inside MediaCityUK, the Manchester home for BBC North and ITV studios, newsreader Katie Walderman detailed everything she got done during her shift working for BBC North West Tonight.
Katie clarified it’s not all ‘tea and biscuits’ until dawn – but rather an intense schedule that involves watching for breaking news, updating the social handles, and writing scripts for the bulletin.
Sky News radio journalist Laoise MacCana, who regularly gives her followers a behind-the-scenes look at her job on TikTok, said she ‘I literally get five hours of sleep every time I do a night shift’ in a video documenting her routine before work.
‘I mean, I try to have a lie down and have a sleep before my shift, but obviously that doesn’t happen,’ she continued. ‘I don’t sleep when I’m meant to at night-time let alone just randomly sleeping in the day.’
Laoise added she swaps out her regular make-up routine for moisturiser and ‘the tiniest bit of concealer’, explaining ‘I literally just treat these shifts like I’m going to bed’.
Business reporter and senior presenter at the BBC World Service Leana Bryne said she eats her dinner at half-seven, noting ‘you really can’t beat those rice packets from Aldi’ for a quick and convenient meal.
She continued: ‘At half-seven, quarter to eight in the BBC, in MediaCity, there is nobody around.
‘The producers and I, we have to take it in shifts, when we go and have our dinner.’
She quipped late shifts made her ‘contemplate my life decisions’, adding: ‘Is this really a way to spend a Friday night, reading a Daily Mail on your own in the canteen.’
TV news host and radio presenter Greg McKenzie also documented the start of a late night shift at the BBC on TikTok, noting: ‘This is me on the night shift heading into BBC.
‘Look, I have my suit, my cupcakes, my bag, laptop, Let’s do this, this is the night shift, the overnight.
‘Whilst most people are sleeping, I’ll be here, watching out for the latest breaking news.’
Sky News runner and script writer Jack Darlington regularly documents his overnight shifts that run from 9pm until 5am in posts on TikTok, noting he usually arrives at the studio with ten minutes to spare.
‘First thing I’ll do when I start my shift is check the runner’s phone,’ he said. ‘One of the guests had arrived so I made her a coffee.
‘I’ll print off the front pages [of the UK’s national newspapers] as they arrive, making a list for the presenter and for both guests.
‘At about 10:15pm, 10:20, the paper’s list will be confirmed,’ he continued.
‘At half eleven, I’ll head over to the newsroom to meet the overnight presenter and print out the running order.
‘And I’m here to basically floor manage the presenter from midnight to 5am and basically help out if there’s any breaking news,’ he finished.
Althought late shifts are an inextricable part of life as a journalist, Harvard Health warns about the effects of ‘shift work disorder’ that ‘mainly strikes people who work the overnight or early morning shift, or who rotate their shifts.’
Eric Zhou, an assistant professor in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, said: ‘People who work 9-to-5 shifts are typically awake when the sun is up, which is aligned with their body’s internal circadian clock.
‘But for shift workers, their work hours and sleep hours are misaligned with the natural cues to be awake or asleep.
‘They’re working against the universe’s natural inclinations – not just their body’s.’
A 2022 research review in the in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medecine also linked shift work with higher risks for serious health problems, such as heart attack and diabetes.
Adverse effects of shift work can include metabolic syndrome, which refers to a group of conditions that raises the potential risks for heart disease and stroke, as well as certain types of cancer.
Zhou recommended minimising exposure to light after leaving work by using ‘blue light–blocking glasses or blackout shades’ in the bedroom, and making enough time for sleep on your days off.
