Night shift blues

P_RN, ADN, RN · Jan 16, 2002

You can try to go straight home, take a few hours sleep and then be up and about for several hours. Finally go back and finish your sleep. Whatever you do, don't try to galavant about right after you get off. You never get any rest that way.

You can try keeping night hours all the time. With 24 hour Walmarts you can pretend it's daytime if you want.

I don't see how anyone on nights can maintain a life with "daytime" individuals.

rosy · Jan 16, 2002

We night people somehow believe we need less sleep than day people and our friends and family don't seem to understand that interupting our sleep time is NOT OK. Let me just set the record straight. NIGHT PEOPLE NEED TO SLEEP.

I find it has been easier if I establish a fairly consistant routine. I go to bed when I get home, get up mid afternoon and go about life. Sleep is a priority. I almost never answer the phone or the door if it wakes me up. That's why God made answering machines I have worked nights for most of my married life, I have kids that are busy and involved. It's not easy at times but it is not impossible either.

Somepeople just have a harder time with nights than others, but look around your city on the way to work sometime and realize how many people work nights, I think according to the census dept it is about 1/3 of all American workers. That is significant. We don't work nights because we couldn't get a day job. Night jobs are just as significant and valuable as any job. We work nights for lots of reasons. But dress rehersal for days is not one of them.

Hope you can make the adjustment

thisnurse · Jan 16, 2002

ive pretty much given up trying to live a day life. i just stick to the night hours. im a night person anyway so i dont mind that much. nobody wakes me up. the problem i have is that i just never feel rested. i could sleep 12 hours and still be tired.

to me tho its worth it. i still hate working daylight. i hate waiting longer for the elevators. i hate having to stop on every floor in the day. i hate that patients have to be somewhere. cant stand all the bosses and docs, not to mention the visitors. all the discharges and new admits make me crazy. TOO MANY PEOPLE!

Agnus · Jan 16, 2002

Originally posted by thisnurse
ive pretty much given up trying to live a day life. i just stick to the night hours. im a night person anyway so i dont mind that much. nobody wakes me up. the problem i have is that i just never feel rested. i could sleep 12 hours and still be tired.
to me tho its worth it. i still hate working daylight. i hate waiting longer for the elevators. i hate having to stop on every floor in the day. i hate that patients have to be somewhere. cant stand all the bosses and docs, not to mention the visitors. all the discharges and new admits make me crazy. TOO MANY PEOPLE!

I was forced to work nights when I came back to work. I have taken the first opportunity to move to days. But I hear you and agree. So that is why I try to work weekends. There is less BS going on and getting in the way. Fewer people around to stir the pot.

e-nurse · Jan 16, 2002

How very unfortunate for you to live where you live and be unsatisfied w/ life. It's beautiful there! I rotate day/night, and I'm not sure if I like nights or not b/c I'm never on them long enough to get used to them. I think day/night rotating is worse than nights for a lot of people. You switch back and forth so much you don't know if you're coming or going!

Trauma Columnist · Jan 16, 2002

I currently work 12 hour nights in the er. I have worked a total of nine years of nightshifts. I have also worked days and the awful rotating day/night thing too. The rotating thing just killed me. I can work days or nights easily.

Currently, I work nights by choice because of a family issue. I find I must cherish my sleep time and make everyone else aware of that too. I get to sleep by 8:30 am and set my alarm for 4 pm. I do keep the cell phone on, because the school is the only one that needs to get ahold of me. I turn everything else off. (I'm also a volunteer firefighter/pre-hospital RN and do calls during the day too.)

I try to work out and for me, that helps with the stress too.

Hooligan · Jan 16, 2002

Hello everyone!

I'm just curious here...I plan on hopefully working nights when I finish school (3 yrs.). My husband works nights and loves it...I've worked nights in the past duing college and liked the late night work aspect...it was just hard having to go to school all day right after work! Anyway...that was a long time ago...My hope is to be able to spend more time with my husband! It would be wonderful to actually be able to snuggle up with someone before falling asleep again!!!

Anyway...we do eventually plan on having kids so how would that work? I mean, we don't exactly want to raise little vampires! "Yes...this is our son Nosferatu..." Has anyone done this? I just can't see a way to get your rest and raise a "normal" kid. For those of you with older kids, is someone ever home with them at night? Just curious how this works. Thanks!

~Bean

colleen10 · Jan 16, 2002

Bean - you crack me up! "Yes...this is our son Nosforatu":D

PhantomRN · Jan 16, 2002

Rotating is a brutal little nightmare. I worked straight nights to avoid the rotation, but found I had to rotate anyway, if I ever wanted to see my kids in the daylight hours.

It is a no win situation. So I am always looking for that perm. day job. They are hard to find.

KIWIRN · Jan 17, 2002

sleep is sooo important for night shift workers

i was given some handy hints from my mum who worked nights for 16 yrs (part-time)

*shower before going to bed- it lowers the body temp and induces sleepiness

* turn the phone off and answer phone on- check when you wake

*sleep as long as you can

*eat easily digested foods at night (no heavy red meat etc)

* go to bed as soon as you get home, or else your bio-rhythms start to increase again and sleep becomes next to impossible

when i first started nights i was constantly interupted by people knocking on my front door (couriers, meter-man, people looking for the neighbours place) so i now attach a sign to my front door- it says - potentially grumpy shift worker sleeping- knock at your own risk!!!

it has worked beautifully so far.

SavageWist · Jan 17, 2002

i work nights and i love it. when i started nights friends would call around noon to do lunch. i could not make them understand this was the middle of my night so dont call. then it dawned on me to call them on my hours and invite them for lunch, say at 3:00 am. BINGO they got the message fast.