Any night shifters split the difference?

Nurses General Nursing

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This week I am starting on nights. I'll usually be working three in a row, always on weekends. Rather than try to make the 12 hour flip-flop from days to nights I want to try to stay up until midnight or 0100 on my days off. Because it is during the week I'll sleep while he and the kiddos are away, get up in time to pick the boys up from school, and have the evenings to spend with him. The night before my first shift I'll stay up as late as I can and then sleep as long as possible into the day. My thinking is that it won't be so hard transitioning if I'm used to staying up half the night anyway.

My husband thinks I'm nuts. Has anyone had this kind of schedule work out? One of the things I like about it is that I get to see my family a lot during the week, but I'll still have plenty of time to myself (which seems to be absolutely necessary for my mental health).

I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I normally try to stay up all night so I can sleep all day if I work the next night. On my nights off, I end up on a schedule of going to sleep around 1am and waking up around noon. I think that sounds like what you described? If so, It has worked well for me for the last 3 years.

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Specializes in Oncology.

I stay up til 1-2am on my nights off and get up at 9 or 10am. Works for me.

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Specializes in Oncology.
I normally try to stay up all night so I can sleep all day if I work the next night. On my nights off, I end up on a schedule of going to sleep around 1am and waking up around noon. I think that sounds like what you described? If so, It has worked well for me for the last 3 years.

You sleep 11 hours on your nights off? Some nights I sleep a lot needing to catch up, but I can't imagine sleeping that much routinely.

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Specializes in NICU.

I go to bed between MN and 2am on my nights off, get up anywhere from 0700-0900. That depends on the schedule for the day, or how demanding the critters can be. It's hard to sleep with a cat sitting on your chest. Or a dog telling us that we forgot something. It's rare that my husband will get up and fix their breakfast.

It's much easier to stay awake late than to get up early!

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Specializes in Critical Care.
You sleep 11 hours on your nights off? Some nights I sleep a lot needing to catch up, but I can't imagine sleeping that much routinely.

Haha, not always but yeah. I love my sleep! lol.

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Specializes in critical care, PACU.

^ I average a lot of extra sleep on nights off too. hehehe

sometimes I marathon sleep in preparation of a long stretch of nights and roll into work with 14hrs under my belt

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

I'm currently a night-shifter who works from 6pm to 6am. On my days off I sleep during the evening (3 to 10pm), stay up all night into the wee hours of the morning, take care of business during the late morning, and then fall back asleep in the afternoon.

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Last night was my first night trying it. It was a struggle to stay up until midnight, even though I had a nap in the afternoon yesterday. I was trying to sleep for four hours, get up for breakfast, then sleep for four more hours. It was turning me into a zombie after only two days. I got up at 0900 and feel like an actual human being, so I have high hopes this will work. Tonight I think I'll go try working out around 2300, tomorrow is my first night shift.

This would be so much easier without kids! At the same time, I think they're going to keep me grounded in the real world and force me into seeing the sun occasionally.

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Specializes in Endoscopy/MICU/SICU.

It is really rough working night shift with kids. I had a really hard time staying awake at night for about the first month, but didn't have trouble going to sleep by 10pm on my days off. After that, I had a hard time going to sleep before 2am on my days off, and trouble waking up before 8am.

Now, on my days off, I get up with my little kids between 7 and 8 (which is really hard), and I take melatonin or a benadryl around 10pm so I can get to sleep by 11pm. I don't do anything different the night before I go in, go to sleep by 11pm get up by 7am, hang out with the kids until I go to work. On Fridays, it's a rough first night, but falls into place by Saturday and Sunday is fine. I get home on Monday around 8am, get to sleep by 8:30am and get up by 1pm to get my schedule back to normal. Then I'm pretty tired by 11pm.

You'll get it all figured out for yourself once you start. Like I said, it's rough with little kids, but doable.

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Specializes in LTC/Rehab,Med/Surg, OB/GYN, Ortho, Neuro.

I work 10p-6a, 4 on 2 off. After i work my last night, I stay awake all day, become a zombie around 6pm, then go to bed when my kids do at 830pm. I sleep well all night and get up on a normal person schedule and am able to sleep again that night. The next day when I'm going back to work, I'll take a nap from 6p-830p. Not counting the occasional bouts of insomnia I get, this schedule works well for me.

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DH and I both work eight-hour nights. On our days off, we usually sleep from 0300 to 1100 or 0400 to 1200. It's that half step you were talking about. Of course, we don't have kids at home any more, but even when we did, one of us would get up to see them off to school and come back to bed.

This might not work for everyone, but it does the trick for us. I have to admit, the fact that we're both on nights really helps.

Don't be afraid to try different combinations until you find something you can all live with. Flexibility is so important when you are nocturnal.

I hope you can find a system that works for you and your family.

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