Does anyone else like working night shift besides me?

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Hello; I've tried dayshift a couple of times and always retreated back to nightshift. I like the staff. I like the quiet. I like the extra pay. Day's and swing shift have administration, overhead paging, visitors, meals, and doctors to deal with. Each with their own level of anxiety that they cheerfully pass along to the nurses. I've adapted to the sleep cycle and can easily flip from day to night sleeping. I'm just wondering if anyone likes to work nights?

Specializes in NICU.
How does the night shift effect your relationships? Are you always on that schedule even when you're off? Or are you able to spend time with your family and friends during your days off without it throwing you too much?

I work my three twelves in a row (the same days each week) and plan on either sleeping or working for that 60 hours. Then I have the rest of the week to be awake during the days with my family. It works pretty well with my kids--my littlest one yesterday said (when I told him today was my work night), "I have mom-time with you and then you go to work and I have dad-time." It almost sounded like joint custody :rolleyes:. But it works and I like being home when my kids get home from school.

I do make a HUGE point of sleeping during my days after work--that sounds obvious, but it's harder than you might think. I unplug the phone and my kids know that if they come up to ask me something non-emergency, the answer will always be no. Even my mom doesn't call...usually ;).

I like the night people I work with and I get paid a huge amount more to work nights--several dollars an hour. I've thought about working days in the summer, but I just can't give up that extra cash . Besides, how many jobs can compress a full weeks work into 60 hours.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, EP,.

i love night shift :redpinkhe

it is the only place you can work in a hospital and avoid all the suits. it's just me, my patients and a few family members.

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I'm still in school, but at 28 NS is the first time in my life I've ever had to be somewhere regularly before 11 am. I've never regularly gone to work before 4pm, and I've worked and enjoyed 11p-7a shifts. I hate mornings. I'm doing it, and I haven't slept through a class or clinical yet (knock wood), but it s really rough on my body. In order to fall asleep before my alarm goes off, I start with a sleepytime tea. Then I take a prescribed sleep aid, and I usually pop two Benadryl on top of that. This is usually around midnite, since no matter what time I wake up I don't think I've ever fallen asleep when it was pm. Then I read for an hour or so (novel, not textbook), and force myself to turn the light off around 1. I have to get up at 0530 for clinical and 0630 for class. I often toss and turn until 2 or 3, or wake up several times during the night. I don't think I've had more than 5 hours on any night before class or clinical. When I worked nights, I never had a problem. 5 more months of this, then I can get back on a much more normal 7p-7a schedule! My husband works days, but it's more like 1100-1900. He never goes to bed before 2/3 am either, so we'll actually have more time together if I work nights. I'm literally counting the days.

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I'm another night-shifter who loves it. I'm not a nurse yet (current student), but work as a unit secretary at night. I love it for all the reasons cited above, and can't imagine ever working days. I don't have kids, but I think it would be a pretty decent shift for someone with school-aged kids so you can sleep during the day when the kids are at school. I definitely could not do night shift if I wasn't able to sleep in the daytime. I have blackout shades in my bedroom and make a concerted effort to come home and go almost immediately to bed, usually by 8 or 8:30 a.m. I'll sometimes take one OTC sleeping pill if I'm wound up (i.e. after a hectic night on the floor), and can usually sleep right through to 4:30 or 5 p.m. if I have to get up and do it all over again. I don't know how some of the night nurses do it -- many of them go out and run a bunch of errands, etc., before going home to bed. If I don't go right home and right to bed, I'm a goner.

Do any of the rest of you night-shifters sometimes feel like you're going to die, though, between about 3:30 and 5 a.m.? That's definitely the hardest time for me. Most of the work's been done, so you get real dozey. Shortly after 5, things start picking up as the early docs start rounding, shift change preps are made, etc.

All in all, though, I adore the night shift. Love the lack of extra bodies (docs, therapists, admins, etc.). I wouldn't change it for the world!

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Specializes in CMSRN.

I love it. I work Fri, Sat and Sun. My husband is a mr mom so there is no problem with my kids. (3yrs and 5yrs)

I am home for my kindergartener and do not need after school care for her. (I send my son to daycare though. Even though I am home, he needs to socialize)

I just dislike it when you want to contact a doc for something small and

when you do the doc gets annoyed. Being that I am new I do not know the docs that you can call and the ones you want to avoid.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Cardiac, ICU.

I love working nights as well and I have never had a problem day sleeping. No administration and fewer families.

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How does the night shift effect your relationships? Are you always on that schedule even when you're off? Or are you able to spend time with your family and friends during your days off without it throwing you too much?

Well, my dh snores really bad (plus apnea), so we have been sleeping separate anyways before I started on the night shift. Once he gets to the sleep clinic, that might change. But with 5 kids, it might be better if we stay separate. ;)

I stay up until about 3 or 4 on my days off, which still gets me up in time to do "stuff" with the family. I can also study during that quiet time. I remind them too, that if I was working days, I still wouldn't have been home until after 4pm.

Even though I home sleeping, I am still home for sick days, snow days and days off if needed..so my kids stay home but still know I'm around to help.

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I loved the night shift and worked it for 13 years for all those reasons, but the last year my body turned on me and I was chornically fatigued without sleeping well, so I bit the bullet and went to day shift two years ago. No regrets because I feel better.

It's a night nurses myth that administration bugs day shift. I never see them. Ever blue moon they pass through but don't stop to talk to peons like me, and really aren't interested. LOL

I miss nigh tshift sometimes though, it's a completely different way of life. Miss that $4.00/hour differential too.

It is a scientifically documented fact that as a group people over 40 or 50 have a lot more trouble tolerating nights. It does not mean that occasionally there is someone in that age group that thrives on it, it just means that predominantly nights is hard on older persons. That was me before age 40 loved it, after age 40 still loved it but it hated me.
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Specializes in Ortho, Neuro, Detox, Tele.

i hope to be off night shift by 40(I'm 27..grad in May.) Hopefully done with my master's and doing my education by then. I do like nights for the less hectic pace after 11PM(most nights), families out by 9, patients asleep and most don't need much, and docs off floor by 10....

Days always seems to be backbiting and going around and around when I get here, and I usually have to service recover patients for their bad afternoons, then they love me by 4AM.

Just a thought, unless you've worked both shifts, you really can't compare.

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Specializes in Behavioral Health, Show Biz.

give me the night

we don't ever fight

keeping it right

'til dark becomes light

give me the night

i stay in flight

don't think i can bite...

:onbch:

aaaaaahhhhhhhhh...

wake me up when the shift is over!

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Specializes in Geriatric and Psychiatric.

I LOVE working night shift. Mostly because I am a natural night owl anyway. Even when I had to work day shift I had an excruciating time getting enough sleep. Nocturnal insomnia but sleep like a baby all day.

I've worked day shift before and sometimes the hectic pace does make to the shift go by faster.

I guess I mostly prefer night shift due to my personal sleep schedule. The chronic fatigue a lot of people get on nights, I get on day shift. :bugeyes:

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I graduated from nursing school at 45 and worked nights for three years. I loved nights for the camraderie, the peacefulness (no phones ringing off the hook, no overhead pages, etc) being able to get up from documenting on the computer then coming back to where you left off without someone logging you off, no bigwigs...Unfortunately, the hospital I worked for did not give set schedules so you could work three nights on, one off, four on, two off. The only nights you could count on were your weekend nights otherwise your schedule was all over the place. I'm sorry but one night off might as well not be a night off at all. We used to call it a "fake day off". I always found that I needed the first day to adjust then I could enjoy my second day off. Maybe it was my age but I always felt chronically hung over or jet lagged. I always managed to pull it together for work but I was miserable at home. I finally took a home care position, M-F days with an occasional on-call weekend. Best decision I could have made. I miss my night shift co-workers but I don't miss feeling exhausted all the time.

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