Do you sleep before your first nightshift?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Med/Surg, LTC/Geriatric.

I usually cannot sleep beforehand. I can never nap in the afternoon as I have 2 young children. I sometimes try to lie down at 7:30pm (11-7 shift) but I almost never can sleep as my normal bedtime is about 11pm.

So I'm basically up for 24 hours when my first nightshift ends. Subsequent nights are easier as I have slept usually until at least 2pm or so.

 

1 Votes
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I work 12-hour night shifts (6pm to 6:30am) and I usually take a five-hour nap before getting ready for work. I usually sleep from 11am until 4pm. If I could get a full 7 or 8 hours worth of sleep, I certainly would. However, I cannot immediately fall asleep when I know that I have to work that night. Much of this is psychological, I suppose.

2 Votes

I work 7p-730am, I always try to sleep at least 5 hours before going in to work, if not I will not have a good night. I was up this am at 330 am, will go take a warm shower, lay down around 0900 and read for awhile. I had to buy black out curtains, take the phone out of the bedroom etc. I can't go without sleep and be at my best. I've only been working this shift a couple of months, brand new nurse. I didn't realize how hard this shift would be on life in general.

2 Votes

I haven't worked nights in a hospital yet (that's coming after my day orientation) but I've worked nights other places. What I do is go to bed late and get up early the night before I have to work a night shift (so I go to bed late on Thurs and get up early Fri if I have to work Fri night). Then I take a nap, from about 12 to 4. Sometimes I'll take a small dose of Tylenol PM or something similar to help me get some sleep. Then when I get home in the am, if I have to work the next night too, I'll go to bed by 9 and get up at 4. If I don't work I stay up but might nap on the couch for an hour or two so that I'll still be able to sleep that night. It definitely takes getting used to! It also helps that all my kids are now in school full time (youngest started K this week). In your case, you'll want someone to take over childcare duties while you sleep at least sometimes.

1 Votes
Specializes in PACU, CARDIAC ICU, TRAUMA, SICU, LTC.

I work an occasional night shift (11p-7:30a) on my day off for extra $. Usually, the shift is a last minute thing. I turn off the ringer on the phone, turn on the fan/air conditioning, and I am down for the count. As I live only 4 miles from work, I get up @ 9:45 pm, get ready, and I am out the door. I could not make it through the shift without the 3 hour "nap."

2 Votes
Specializes in Quality Nurse Specialist, Health Coach.

I try to get a nap in the afternoon before I pick my daughter up from daycare.

1 Votes
Specializes in ICU.

I am getting ready to start working nights again in a week or so. I am worried about this as well. Last summer I worked 3 nights in a row every week starting on Fri. What I would do is around Tue or Wed so I would start going to bed later, around 2 am. Then Thu I would stay up till around 4 or 5 am. That would allow me to sleep later on Fri, and staying up all night Fri wasn't such a shock to my system. I would sleep for 4 hours or so when I get home Sat (not by choice, it just seems that is when I would wake up), then I would try to catch 2 or 3 more hours right before I left for work. It worked for me, but I was still tired a lot. So Mon night I would usually sleep 8 hours or so straight through to "catch up" a bit on sleep.

God Bless

1 Votes
Specializes in ED.

I have 4 children (ages 9-4), so sleeping during the middle of two nightshifts is difficult. But to sleep before the first shift, just about impossible. I'll lay there for about 3 hours or so, and about 1.5 hours of that is tossing and turning cause of noise and then I just get up more miserable than if I never slept at all. And I'll still have that 4am crash so I just say forget it and stay up.

1 Votes
Specializes in Med/Surg, LTC/Geriatric.

I do sleep a normal amount after the first nightshift. Usually from 7:05am (live very closeby :) ) to around 2-2:30pm. Then sometimes another sleep from 8-10pm. But I just can't seem to get in a nap before the first one and even if I get the time, I can't fall asleep.

1 Votes

Another napper here. Some nights could nap, others I couldn't. The times I napped before (just an hour or two) made a huge difference that first night.

1 Votes
Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.

If I'm working 7P-7A, I try my hardest to stay up until at least 6 AM, then receive at least eight hours of sleep. I find that if I am well rested on my first night back to work, things go much smoother.

Also, there is no guarantee that I will be able to receive good sleep when I arrive home the next morning. The earliest I can possibly pull into my driveway is 8 AM, and I must leave for work no later than 6:20 PM.

If I start my stretch of nights sleep deprived, I'm already fighting a losing battle and am useless after three twelve hour shifts!

Now, if I work 11P-7A, I only need 2-4 hours. I'm not sure why, but if I get a lot of sleep before that shift, I feel more exhausted.

1 Votes

We are four people in a small house, and I cannot stay up all night on my nights off as there is nothing to do (I can't do laundry, clean, exercise, etc as it would awaken other sleepers). So I try to get up by 6am in the morning and then take a 3-4 hour nap before going in to work that first night (7p-7a).

I use ear plugs, use a fan for white noise and tie a light, long-sleeved tshirt around my head to block noise and light. I have children and have never had any problem sleeping during the afternoon, even when they were young and noisy.

1 Votes
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