12 hour overnight nurses, please tell me about your sleep schedule.

Nurses Stress 101 Nursing Q/A

I've been working M-F 3-11 for about a year, and I hate it. I feel as if I have no life and am on the brink of depression. I spoke with my manager 2 weeks ago about a night position, and she had none open. Like an answer to a prayer, last Friday one of my co-workers resigned and I was offer 7p to 7A today.

I'm wondering about sleep schedules for those of you working this shift. I have a 9 year old that I homeschool, so if you have kids at home during the day, I'm especially interested in hearing how you juggle sleep and real life. Thanks for the input!

Specializes in ICU, psych, corrections.

As someone who started out her nursing career working three 12-hour nights shifts for about 3 1/2 years, then transitioned into a Monday-Friday 7:30 to 4:30 (with an hour lunch) nursing job in an outpatient clinic and now back to nights, I can say I MUCH prefer nights. While I do love getting up early in the AM to do my running, Crossfit, etc. I absolutely hated that I didn't feel I had much quality time with my youngest, who is 7. Sure, I was able to see him every evening, tuck him in, etc. But because it was the evening rush of dinner, homework, bath and bedtime, there wasn't much downtime for us....or me. And on the weekends, time was spent doing errands, grocery shopping, getting dinners ready for the next week (I prep in advance for the week ahead to make life easier on all of us), cleaning, etc. Factor into that anytime there was a school function, teacher conference, etc and I could never attend without taking the day off work (I worked 35 miles from home so not really feasible to leave for an hour or two to attend said function then return to work). I thought I would love a traditional 8 hour work day. My supervisor even let me try four 10 hour days for a while and that still didn't feel like much extra time. I didn't like having to take time off work for doctor's appointments and if my son was sick, I would miss an entire day (or two, or three) to stay home with him, which depleted my sick time.

Now, I'm back on nights and I love it. I absolutely love the extra time I have not only for my son but for myself. I am a marathon runner and now, instead of my long runs taking place on a Saturday morning (which consist of anywhere from 2 to 3 1/2 hours long) and thus stealing time away from my kiddos, I can do them on a weekday morning after school starts. I am able to walk my son to school Mon through Friday as I get off work at 6am, home by 6:15 and making breakfast for him. I am awake (usually) by the time he comes home from school and most days, I am able to be at the school to walk home with him. Although I do work weekends (Fri and Sat nights), I don't sleep when I get home on Sundays and that is a "lazy" day for the family. We hang out, order pizza that night for dinner so nobody has to cook, watch movies, play video games, etc. They love the extra time with mom and so do I. I can attend physical therapy or other doctor appointments without having to take time off work or away from the family.

My first night back usually sucks, I will admit. That is because I get up at 7am to get my son ready for school and I rarely nap that afternoon. So I go to work that night until 6am the next morning and I can't go to bed until after I drop him off at school at 8am. So I'm up for about 26-27 hours by the time my head hits the pillow. That is the day I will sleep until 4pm and have my older daughter or husband pick up the 7 year old from school. But after that, I'm good and sleep about 5 hours a night. I get enough sleep (5 to 6 hours has always been enough for me, even when I worked day shift) and love the extra time off. Sunday night is an early night to bed for me as I've been up since Saturday afternoon, save for about a 2-3 hour nap early Sunday morning after getting off work that last night. So I hit the bed around 8-9pm and sleep until 6am the next morning. I stay on that schedule until my work week begins again.

Not everyone is cut out for nightshift. My husband is TERRIBLE on nights. He's an absolute zombie, even on his days off. It was horrible when he worked nights (I am a nursing supervisor in the prison and he is a Sergeant there). We love that he is on days and I'm on nights. Our shifts suit us nicely. But for me, I do well on nights. I don't need a ton of coffee, Monster drinks, etc. and have no trouble flipping back and forth between my work day schedule and my days off schedule. After working both day shift and night shift, I much prefer my current schedule of nights!

I wish I could sleep through the night.

I typically have five days off in a row. I have tried to come home at 7am, sleep till 10, stay up till 11 and sleep but I will wake up three hours later. At that point I am sleep deprived and in a non-functioning state. If you can sleep through the night and adjust your clock like that, consider yourself lucky.

On the last of my five, I will usually be up during the day, take a nap between 2200-0100 then stay away until 0900. I generally sleep very well during the day. Just can't sleep through the night anymore :(

Specializes in Cardiology.

Thanks for all the input.

I don't think on overnight shift will be isolating for me. I don't have any social contact at all right now M-F because of the crappy shift I already work, and I will be able to see my daughter and husband much more working this new shift.

My daughter is already really good about getting up and doing the homework portion of her day early in the AM and allowing me to sleep. I don't intend to sleep all day anyway, although I will need to sleep longer on the days I have to work again that night (which I will likely have to do once a week.) I plan to start out by trying to sleep for 4 hours after I get home, then go to bed at night. This is what I currently do when I work doubles (3P to 7A) and it suits me well. I'm definitely a night person by nature, up till at least 3 or 4 most mornings. I'll adjust from there, and I do have a place my daughter can go whenever needed. I'm really, really looking forward to this change.

You started out c/o that you have no life. You ended by saying you don't need a life. And with depression, if you are on meds, nights will make you ill. Also, you won't be sleeping with your husband. It sounds alluring- to have the daytime off, but night shifts are gruesome for most people. You never sleep right. You'll be weak, dizzy, confused, and always wanting and thinking 'I just want to sleep' so your daytimes will be distracting. Read all these replies- they all talk about sleep. I'll suggest you work those 12 hour nights shift for two weeks, before you give up yout 3-11. You'll be in for a suprise.

You don't really sleep when you work nights, you pass out as someone said. It's never a refreshing sleep. You always crave sleep- is justnever goes away, that tearning to sleep.

Ever think of cutting back to 4 days? Maybe you can get 3 days off in a row. Then you might rethink things. Most places seem to consider 32 hours a week as full time for benefits.

I worked 8hr NOC shifts with a 10 minute commute for 12 years. NO PROBLEM.

Now I'm doing the 3x 12hr NOC shifts with a 45 minute commute and it's killing me too. :dead:

After a year of that, I'm done and moving on.

Do I understand you correctly?:

Dingbat day nurse always arrives a half hour late. Then she has to do her make up. By then, I've missed the window to get on the road before rush hour, which adds another 30 minutes to my drive, when I'm already about to pass out from exhaustion?

Specializes in Cardiology.

I don't recall ever saying I don't need a life. I said that I will have more of a life working nights than I currently do.

I'm not sure why everyone is so down on nights. I am absolutely a night person- I always have been. And I've looked or other shift options- they aren't available.

I used to work 3 14-15 hour shifts. In a row. It is tiring, but I handled it fine. All my local friends who work nights love it.

And I think everyone took my brink of depression comment too far. I handle my mood just fine with exercise and diet, but if I have to continue working evenings, I just don't see myself being happy with my JOB. I'm quite happy during my weekends and when I actually get to interact with my family.

Thanks, everybody, for your input. I think I've gotten a lot of interesting insight.

Specializes in Cardiology.

Just wanted to add that while I was in nursing school, I was a school all day, supervising a staff of 25 a evening working full time, and only ever getting 4-5 hours sleep. That was before I lost my home, on the first day of my last year of nursing school, to hurricane Irene. And DH and I homeschooled DD throughout. I think I'll be okay. As for not sleeping at the same time as DH, I'm okay with that- he snores and I hardly get any sleep anyway.

Thanks for the info about sleep schedule.

Specializes in Cardiology.

Thanks for the input. My daughter is my main priority, always, in my life. My husband and I have worked very hard to keep her as minimally in the care of others as possible. Right now she has to be our of our care about 3 hours a day. With this change, she will not have to be our of our care at all. I'm looking forward to that aspect and don't really care if I will have to adjust to a new sleeping pattern.

Specializes in Peds.

It's funny to me that some of these replies are trying to talk you out of night shift, when your entire question was to know what other night-shifters sleep patterns are. I think you are excited about your new schedule... :)

Specializes in Cardiology.

Coming back a year later to say I am loving nights. There are certainly times when I am tired, but I was so miserable before I was always tired. I now often have 5 or 6 days off in a row. I easily transition back and forth between day shift no-work schedules and my night work schedule. Sometimes I do go too long without sleep to enjoy family affairs (dd's soccer tourney after a long work shift, for example,) but only when I have the night off. I am also enjoying the higher shift differential (which was almost removed due to reorganization, but which we were able to keep in the end) and not getting different patients every single day (since most nurses on my unit work twelves and I was going to work in the middle of a shift.). So...thanks again for the input!

Now that you have a routine with your night shifts, how do you plan your sleep in order to transition back and forth between days and nights?

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