Does anyone like night shift?

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My gf when she worked it hated it with a passion. Said it was hard to see friends and family etc. Does anyone like it? Was is good about it? Doesn't seem like anything to me.

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
This is really encouraging to me. I just landed my first job and it's night shift. Among the general nerves about "OMG, I'm a real nurse now!" is the question of whether I can handle working nights. Left to my own devices, I stay up until 3 or 4 and then sleep till 10 or so, so I'm thinking that night shift shouldn't be too bad. I never liked having to be in bed by 8 to get up at 4 for clinicals, I never got enough sleep and felt draggy.

Anyway, thanks for the post, it definitely makes me feel good!

If that is how you are you should be able to adjust. I never got used to the getting up early thing. But I got used to the night thing! Just remember it takes time and if you can get the 3 nights in a row, give yourself a day to recover. Get blackout curtains. You can find lots of tips for adjusting to nights.

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Specializes in Psych.

We get $3.50 extra for nights. Right now nights works out for my family. (husband and two young teens) My worst sleeping day is Saturday neighbors mowing, building stuff. but I have a supportive family that understand Mom has to sleep. As long as I keep a regualar sleep schedule I am good. I usually stay up playing video games or running the laundry train when I have a night off.

At the LTC I work per diem I am busy all night long, paperwork, chart checks, treatments, helping with rounds, esp in the morning with the killer med pass. At the psych unit, as long as everyone sleeps......I can knit, crochet, use the internet. We are a small group and very supportive of each other. And if one of us is tired we keep each other awake.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
I worked nights for about four years. I loved it when I worked it, but now that I have switched to days I have to say I will take crazy family and busy docs over weird sleeping schedules, not seeing my husband, and the lack of resources.

Ditto. I loved nocs when I was starting out in the field, and even requested the graveyard shift when I became an RN, which made job-hunting extremely quick and easy. I'd never been a morning person, anyway, and I really didn't like the busy-ness of days---too many 'suits', too many comings and goings on the floor, too many people crowding the hallways and stealing my charts.

The first clue that there just might be a need to switch things up came around the time I turned 40. Suddenly, I was having trouble remembering who and where I was for the first few minutes after waking in the late afternoon; pretty soon I was having memory problems AT WORK, which did not bode well for my continung employment. Later on, the depression I'd been battling grew worse by the day, and I began to be---well, for lack of a better term---a bit testy. Although if you'd asked my family, they'd probably have used the word crabby........but only when they were being polite.

It took a two-week road trip, living on a daytime schedule like most of the rest of the world, for me to realize that I really did need to change shifts. Dramatic improvements in my concentration and mood happened almost immediately, but while some of that undoubtedly had something to do with being on vacation, they continued long after I'd returned home and made the transition to a 9-to-5 job in management.

Now, on the rare-as-hen's-teeth occasion when I have to fill in on an 11P-7A shift, it takes me a full two days to recover from it. I suppose it could be my age, but I know plenty of nurses even older than I who thrive on the "night-night" shift. I guess I'm just not one of them any more. LOL

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Specializes in M/S, Tele, Sub (stepdown), Hospice.
Okay, I don't understand why going to work at (all times are approximate) 11:00 pm, coming home at 7:30 am, sleeping from 9:00 to 3:00 would make anyone not see their friends or family? You are home and available for all visitors from 3:00 pm until 10:30 pm. At least that was how I did it when I worked the 11 - 7 shift for 17 years?

Well, I work 7p to 7:30a. I wake up about 3 or 4 p.m.....start getting ready for work at 5:30 p.m.....out the door by 6:15 p.m.....come home about 8 a.m. & in bed by 9 a.m. ...then start all over again. When would you suggest I see my family & friends?? It's usually just my fiance & it's mostly in passing. I work 3 nights back to back so my first night off I'm too exhausted to go anywhere or see anyone & the rest of my days off I'm either still recovering, trying to get back to a day schedule....or doing chores like grocery shopping, laundry, etc. Bottom line...I'm always tired :yawn:

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Specializes in M/S, Tele, Sub (stepdown), Hospice.

To the OP,

I love working nights for all the reasons everyone has already listed but lately I'm so fatigued that I don't want to do anything on my days off. I find it too hard to switch to a day schedule when I only have 3 days off & the first one I'm usually in a fog all day anyway. I end up waking up everyday somewhere between 3-5...sometimes even 6 p.m. & then stay up all night. It's ridiculous & I hate it cuz I really feel like my entire day is gone.

When I first began nights, I used to sleep 3-4 hrs & wake up by noon on my days off so I can sleep regularly at night but lately it's just not happening. I'll ask my fiance to wake me up at a certain time & then HOURS later when I wake up I'll ask him why he didn't wake me....his answer: I tried....several times...you wouldn't wake up. I'd have conversations with him & have no recollection when I was awake....scary!!! I'm still battling this & don't know what to do. Even if I wanted to (which I don't)....I couldn't get a dayshift position where I work.

I want to try to go the gym...maybe if I start working out, I'll have more energy but it hasn't happened yet....lol.

Anyone have some advice to conquer this exhaustion??? I try to eat healthy & I sleep on average anywhere from 4-7 hours/day (depending on if I'm between shifts or it's my day off).

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Oncology.

This is so true!! I always turn my phone off!! Then, when I look at it after I wake up, I notice I have several calls throughout the day, and I would have been woken up more than once!

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I liked working nights. Not as much crazyness. It worked out better for me with my kids. The shift diff was also pretty nice too. As I got older, the old body couldn't take it anymore and I felt like crap all the time. Been working days now and I feel a heck of a lot better.

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