how can you learn to get by with less sleep (night shifter)

nursesaideBen · Apr 28, 2007

I think forcing yourself to get up and get outside and excercise is very important. I can relate to you in the fact that after doing a few night shifts I could just sleep forever lol but if I make myself get up and excercise, go shopping, go see family, walk the dog, whatever I can do to get out of the house I usually feel a lot better. A good diet is important too lots of protein and complex carbs. Hope this helps!

clee1 · Apr 28, 2007

It is simply a matter of training, if it can be done at all; and some people just can't. Your body clock will adjust sooner or later, if it can.

Get on a strict schedule: go to bed at the same time, and get up at the same time everyday; whether you are working or not. Gradually cut your sleeping hours to 7-8; no more, and force yourself up and out if you have to. Eat healthily, use caffeine in moderation.

I have worked the night shift for so long, I can get by on 6 hours of sleep in 24, and I don't have to be so rigid in my sleep schedule.

Best of luck to you.

st4304 · Apr 28, 2007

This may not be the reply you want to read and I am sure there will be other posters who will disagree with me, but if you have not adjusted to night shifts after 2 years, then I think you probably never will.

Also, isn't life too short to sleep through and not spend enough time with your family? Look very closely at your finances/budget and is there nothing that you can adjust/sacrifice to make up for the loss of night shift differential? If you have high car payments, sell it and get a nice, cheaper used one. Do you have satellite/cable with premium channels? Drop the premium channels and change to the basic package. Do you or your husband smoke? Stop, save the cig money. I am sure you will be able to find something.

Keep your eyes open for dayshift positions that open up, because they eventually do become available. It may not be in the unit you want or it may be out of your comfort zone, but make the sacrifice to be with your family.

I worked nightshift for 3 years and never adjusted to it. I was always exhausted, crabby, and felt no energy to do anything on my days off. After 3 years, I went to my manager and requested the next available dayshift opening and was told it would be awhile before that would happen. I went to my employers website to check out open dayshift positions, and saw that a dayshift position was open in the cath lab. I was never interested in the cath lab because I had heard horror stories about the call, the docs, the stress, etc. BUT I called the cath lab manager, interviewed and ended up working there for 5 years and loving it! I took a pay cut, and had to wear a pager on my hip for 5 years but I was home every night with my husband and kids, (except for the occasional call-in for an emergency with double-time for pay), and I was awake and alert, and actually felt human again for the first time in 3 years!

Look back over the last two years and how many of the people you have worked with now work days? If you are working with the same people because no dayshift position has opened up for 2 years, then you should look in another facility.

If you are worried about loss of differential, pick up an extra shift every once in a while! Trust me, with the nursing shortage, you will have no trouble making up that loss of income with a dayshift position!

I guess what I hope you get from my advice is that we have to make sacrifices in life, wouldn't you rather the sacrifice be monetary or material and not your family?

Best of luck to you!

Sherri

all4schwa · Apr 28, 2007

I think it's important to sleep all day between shifts, if I were on days, I would sleep all night between shifts. What I like to do it get up early on my first day off, the only way to do this is like ben said, thrust yourself out of the house, and into action. By the time evening comes around, I'm ready to go backt o bed, and I'll sleep 8hrs or so and get up with the whole day ahead of me. Even on the day I go back to work, I get up early. I cook and clean, and then lay down and nap from 1-5, or whatever fits. .. but a good nap. I dont believe in working without sleep.

Mulan · Apr 28, 2007

I think you should find a day shift job as well, and you could pick up a few extra hours to make up the difference in pay.

good luck

burn out · Apr 28, 2007

Sleep is a physical response/need it is not a learned behavior therefore you can not teach yourself to get by on less sleep..that would be like teaching yourself to go for hours underwater without breathing. About the only way I found with coping with working 12 night shifts, which I did for 15 years, was to accept the idea that I was always going to be tired. I would force myself out of bed at 3 pm after working to get the kids from school, I would force myself to go to church but found that every time my head was bent in prayer I fell asleep..it is very embarassing to be snoring during the brief minute communion prayer. Finally it got so bad that I was actually sleeping while standing up, I fell off the chair one night at work as I fell asleep, I would be talking to co-workers and fall asleep mid sentence.Then I realized sleep deprivation was killing me and makiing it unsafe for me and my patients so I forced myself to go to dayshift. To this day I still can not sit and watch a movie on tv with the kids without falling asleep. Night shift I think is something we should only do as long as we have to until we can get on dayshift, nightshift is a form of torture.

deftonez188 · Apr 28, 2007

I used to work 16 hour shifts as a policeman (yes they exist ) and I had a 3 on 3 off schedule.

The way I made it work, and well is I trained myself to sleep immediately upon getting home at 7am, i'd sleep 8 hours until about 3-330pm, then i'd wake up and go on about my day.

Not to say that I wasn't tired at times, even dozy, but in time you get accustomed to it.

I breezed over your message so correct me fr any mistakes but you said you sleep the entire next day after you get off? You need to keep your schedule the same, even on days off, it's absolutely VITAL.

If your family is what keeps you awake or whatnot, tell them you need the 8 hours from X time to X time, and make it happen. My wife was very understanding and never woke me up unless there was an emergency.

Kep the same sleep 'shift', and give it some time, becoming a night owl is not easy, and getting off of it is about the same

locolorenzo22, BSN, RN · Apr 28, 2007

I work 12's too, and the sleep is what kills me....

But, I've got it down to when I'm off, I go to bed around 1-2AM, sleep 9-10 hrs, then get up and force myself to do something, even if it's making an early dinner for the next shifts....I'll go out, go to the store, clean a room of the house, anything to keep me going....

On the actual shift, I usually don't get too tired, unless I'm working 3 in a row....Usually, I'm busy from the time I get there until 11-12, then the last 5 hours kind of drag by....

If you haven't gotten ahold of it yet, I'm not sure if you ever will. But try getting into a regular schedule then reeval in about 2-3 weeks.....

School on top of everything doesn't really give me a choice about sleeping....