Night owls and early birds; As more of us have to work anti-social

CHICKEN curry is unlikely to be number one on the breakfast list for most sensible people in Scotland. Even those brave nutritionists who devote their lives to persuading us to eat more healthily have probably not come across such a repulsive start to the day too often - but the breakfast curry-eater does exist. He belongs to an odd and growing community of workers which begins its day in the early hours of the morning.

It's amazing what a 4am start can do to your body-clock and digestive habits. I know, because up until a few weeks ago I was a member of that community. As a radio journalist with first a local BBC station and then the Good Morning Scotland programme, I became used to 3.30am alarm calls, and although I never succumbed to the morning curry, I did share a breakfast table with a madras enthusiast on a number of occasions.

BBC journalists are, of course, not alone in working anti-social hours. It's estimated around 300,000 people in the UK are at work between 2am and 5am, and more than one million between 9pm and 11pm. According to think-tank The Future Foundation, those figures are due to double by the year 2007. It makes me smile when I think of school- leavers boldly declaring: "I don't care what job I do as long as it isn't a Monday to Friday, nine-to five existence". There were times over the past five years when I thought of taking any job as long as it was a Monday to Friday, nine-to-five existence. Some people I worked with positively enjoyed working early shifts. They liked the idea of being able to go for lunch and not go back to work in the afternoon. But my body-clock held out resolutely against the early starts.

I always thought one of the more depressing times of the year to work these hours was the run-up to Christmas. There seemed to me to be something deeply contrary to any law of natural justice that one person - ie, me - should have to drive to work early in the morning while watching other people - ie, everyone else - laughing and joking as they made their way home from boozy Christmas parties.

Once at work the dominant theme for early-morning shift workers becomes clear - sleep. In the way nine-to-fivers talk about last night's TV or the journey in to work, those on earlies talk about sleep - how much they had that night, when they went to bed, when they got up, how much they've had during the week Sleep deprivation can have curious effects. In my previous place of work hysterical laughter would sometimes break out towards the end of the morning. This usually happened after someone had made a bad joke or come across the sort of "funny" name the Test Match Special commentary team would find hilarious, but which most people would ignore. This reaction, I realised, was similar to pub laughter - when friends crack-up at some rubbish joke purely because they are light-headed. It's remarkable how a similar atmosphere can be created in a newsroom purely by getting up early.

Apart from the difficulties of conducting a social life, the other major side-effect of such a lifestyle is the development of an unhealthy interest in daytime TV. Insidiously you start to recognise the chefs on Ready Steady Cook. Judgment on what is really important in life can also become seriously damaged. I remember becoming tragically happy when I found out Petrocelli was to be re-run on BBC1 - every day. But so much for the effect on the workers. What about their employers?

For some organisations - such as the media - it is essential to ask people to work shifts. But is the rush to adopt a 24-hour society really beneficial for many companies? Dr Lawrence Smith, of the shiftwork research group at the University of Leeds' school of psychology, says firms are reluctant to give out information on productivity levels achieved at different times of the day. However, he's concerned about the effects on the performance and welfare of people asked to work anti-social hours: "There are a lot of tired, fatigued people either coming off work or driving to work in the early hours of the morning," he says. In a study he carried out into a manufacturing site, Smith says he found a greater potential for accidents among early-morning shift workers.

The important thing for employees, says Smith, is choice. They must believe they have some sort of control over their own situation. "In the European Union, and among the more enlightened companies in this country, there is an increasing awareness of the importance of choice and flexibility. That has quite a profound effect on the level of tolerance."

However, there is still a lot more that can be done. Smith says most workers tend to get advice on how to cope with shift-working not from their employer or even their trade union, but from each other. The large increase in the number of people expected to work outside normal office hours is the reason shift-work has now become a big issue.

For many jobs such hours have always been a fact of life. The majority of Scotland's 12,500 postmen and women, for example, start work at 5.30am. The Royal Mail says it's concerned about the health and safety of all its workers, not just early-starters. Spokesman Steve Stewart says the hours are not putting people off: "We are not experiencing any problems with recruitment because of the working practices. Anyone who is applying for a job knows that an early start is a requirement of the job". Maybe, but the adjustment to your life can still be a shock.

Giving up those hours to go back to a more normal existence also involves a major readjustment. My liberation from the early shift tyranny was not as smooth as I had hoped. Rush-hour had been something I had previously only heard about from Ali Abbasi, and I had forgotten just how much of a nightmare 8am traffic can be. I am slowly learning to share stories about gridlock or railway hell instead of being treated as the office weirdo by asking people how much sleep they had the previous night. Having to shop at weekends and visiting the supermarket at the same time as everyone else are also unpleasant experiences. I am still coming to terms with the concept of a lunch-hour. But - as I think most people who are still working anti-social hours would agree - the quality of life enjoyed by day shift workers is far greater. It is difficult to get out of bed at a time when every bone in your body and every brain cell in your head is telling you not be so stupid and to go back to sleep.

If the economic projections are correct and more of us are going to be subjected to the early-shift regime, then I for one find it hard to believe this will lead to a happier, healthier and more productive work-force.

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