Depressed on night shift

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jun 23, 2018

More recently in the past month, I have become more and more depressed and anxious. I dread going to work and it is about nothing in particular. I think it is working night shift and not having a regular pattern of sleeping, eating, or days off. I am in the process of trying to find a job with better hours as I currently work night shift. I really hope I get it.
My job requires that I put in 4 weeks notice. Do I put the notice in now for 4 weeks even though I don't have another job lined up? My luck it would backfire on me but I just don't know if I can mentally handle working nights for another month.

If the problem is that you don't have a regular pattern of sleeping, eating, etc. on days off -- why not? On your days off, keep to the same schedule. You just visit friends or go out in the evenings instead of going to work. Grocery shopping can be done in the wee hours of most cities, laundry machines work at night as does the vacuum cleaner -- as long as you don't have any close neighbors. Come to think of it, that would be a nice way to educate those neighbors who don't understand the concept of you having to sleep in the day time.

It's a bad idea to give notice without another job lined up.

Night shift is a fact of life for nurses. There are plenty of threads on how to survive and thrive on the night shift -- maybe you'll get some ideas of how to make it work for you.

Forever Sunshine, ASN, RN · Jun 23, 2018

I do sleep during the day time, but on my nights off I find it difficult to keep that pattern. Nights just isn't working for my body. When I'm home I'm always tired. Noise/light isnt the problem and my neighborhood is quiet. I wake up from sleep and I feel like I never slept.

Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN · Jun 29, 2018

Welcome to the night shift world,how long you doing this? It is best to line up another job or transfer out of your unit.Learning to do nights is an art in itself, true the tiredness never goes away,if you are doing 12 hr shifts it is tougher.I found it extremely difficult in the beginning and I had considered myself a nite owl.If you do put in notice use a few sick days or v days to break up the time to make it to four weeks.MLOA use medical leave combined with resignation afterwards to fill the time,no sense putting your self in danger,maybe even do a couple of shifts perdiem on your old unit.Best of luck to you.