No more night shifts for more ever again in my life. I'd rather be unemployed for a few weeks, than doing that.
One of the reasons why I changed my mind about becoming a nurse was the night shift, another reason why I never thought about joining the military or becoming a police officer either. The freaking night shift. Yeah, someone has to do it, otherwise, our society would not function, but most people are not made for it. Unless you are making some good money, there is no reason to be killing yourself working overnight shifts. Rotating shifts are even worse, your body never adjusts.
Your social life suffers, not to mention, is almost impossible to find a girlfriend. It destroys relationships. Unless the woman works night shift as well, but what are the odds? Most women simply will not like it. They'd be like, what's wrong, you can't find a regular job? Most people work in the day, it would make any possible relationship impossible.
Working the night shift makes you feel depressed, if you already have depressive tendencies, this is not good. You will be on constant zombie mode all the time. No matter how you adjust your life around, no matter if you use every single trick in the book, it is never the same, it makes sense, why humans did not evolve to sleep in the day and be awake at night. You may have slept 8 hours, but the quality of those 8 hours would probably translate to 4 or 5 regular hours slept at night.
But, who sleeps 8 hours on a consistent basis while doing night shift? Nobody, some days, you will sleep fewer hours and won't be able to get back to sleep. You will be sleep deprived, even though you believe you are sleeping enough. This explains the constant tired, fog, zombie feeling. What matters is not the hours, but the quality of the sleep.
Not to mention, the more you do it, the more problems you will have falling sleep, staying awake, you may develop insomnia, you have resort to all these tricks just to cope with it, and it shouldn't be that way.
The drive back is the worse, what happens if you didn't sleep well the night before, and couldn't take naps, you are screwed, you will fall sleep and crash, the only think that may help you is drinking coffee 30 minutes before you go home, but this will ruin the quality of your sleep, even more than it is already.
I worked overnight before while doing security. I dreaded the ride home every single time, I was afraid I would crash, so I drank coffee before driving, it helped, though, there were times that I had close calls, where I felt my body was about to give up on me, and I had to stop at a gas station, walk around, wash my face, drink some more coffee, etc.
Problem is that it becomes an anxious feeling then, your on edge and anxious you may not make, the coffee that you took to stay more alert, makes you even more anxious and nervous, and what happens when you are nervous? You can make mistake, even more so, when sleep deprived.
It is a horrible feeling, you don't feel safe, you are working so hard, only to total your vehicles that you worked so hard for or worse, kill yourself or others, it is even worse than driving under influence
I have driven with alcohol in my system, and it can be done, you still have some control, it feels different, your reaction is slower, but you won't fall sleep unless you really need to sleep, you simply drive slower and stay on your lane, it can be done, but driving sleep deprived is twice as worse.
