night shift tips

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jan 5, 2005

Being tired is psychological. If you worry about getting sleep and not having enough sleep, then you will be tired all the time. Learn the art of the power nap. 30 minutes and I'm good to go if I have stuff to do during the day (or want to attend church service at 11am on Sunday). I like nights because my husband can get the kids off to school and I am here to be with them when they get home. No more day care bills!!!

I'm glad you can conquer your fatigue with the power of positive thinking. I agree that having something to do during the day motivates me and sometimes I can take my mind off of being tired.

But I disagree with you. It's not pyschological to me. I'm fatigued genuinely and it's not in my head. I'm not one of those people who can sleep a little and feel good just because I'm busy. I'm miserable when I don't get enough rest. I can't come home from working nights, sleep a few hours and get up raring to go. Can't do it. I try not to focus on that, but it's my reality. Right now it's three AM and I'm tired to the bone from sleeping only four hours, and I'm not able to take a power nap because I'm at work. :)

But agree, power naps are the next best thing to a good 8 hours of sleep. And it's true, that if one dwells on how tired they are, or obessesses about sleep it doesn't help.

Sorry for the typos.

Butternut · Jan 5, 2005

I LOVE working nights. The pace is soooo less stressful, physically and mentally. No meal trays, baths, no big bulk of meds. Rarely do we see doctors. We do twelve hour shifts. I do four and then off ten. I catch myself being in a rush at the beginning of the shift and have to remind myself that I have hours to do certain things. Our shift rarely drags and before I know it, it is about time for days to come on. I am home before my child gets on the school bus. It's great!

I usually eat a light snack on arriving home, read email, sometimes watch a little tv. If I wake around noon to BR, I try not to open my eyes much to see daylight. I return to bed and put my earphone back in with one of my Key Life, Steve Brown tapes playing and I drift off again. I listen to these free tapes all the time.

I get up when my child returns from school. Another light snack, sometimes.

So far, I have not gotten sleepy at work. We usually have enough paperwork and call lights to keep things going steady, but if I do have any downtime, I find a crossword puzzle to do. We pass it around when we get stuck. Everyone adds to it. I enjoy that.

Eating also is a nightshift pleasure that I have to watch. I try to keep it small snacks every few hours. Hard candy is nice to have around too. And carry ins are pretty common.

It's great how the nightshift crew work so well together. When we get an admit, everyone pitches in. Men pts always comment that they are amazed at how many women come into the room all at once. They are usually tickled about it all.

I am glad to be on 'nights' at this point in life. I sure needed low-stress.....

tiggerforhim · Jan 5, 2005

The TempurPedic Eye pillow from Brookstone (and I'm not sure where else). It's that foam that conforms to your body contours with body heat. It has a sort of pouch/pillow under the lower lid that presses into your face and shuts out most of the light coming up your nose, which is a big problem with the little flat pads. It is about 35 dollars or so, but it is darn worth it to get a good night's sleep in the "dark". They work well for migraines too!

PJMommy · Jan 5, 2005

I am a new RN grad who just accepted a med-surg position, and although I'll have a 5-month orientation on days, once I am done with that I will be on 7p-7a 3x/week. I have 3 elementary school age children and I don't see how I can stay on a night shift schedule & keep up with their lives, esp. when I have a weekend off.
I appreciate all the tips I've read so far. I'd be interested in hearing from others who work nights & rearrange their sleeping schedule on days off.

I've worked nights for nearly a year now and also have four children - ranging from preschool to middle school.

It took me about 6 weeks to get into a groove but I actually do what everyone says not to do -- I sleep during the day when I work and keep a "normal" schedule when I'm not working. The key for me is to schedule my shifts all in a row. We work 12s so I always schedule all three shifts in a row. I nap with the 3 yr old the afternoon of my first shift (while the others are in school). After my last shift, I sleep all day and then get up around 3 PM -- absolutely no caffeine that evening -- and then go to bed at a reasonably normal time. After trial and error, I can tell you what does NOT work: Don't try to get up "early" after that last shift and expect feel good or be at all productive.

I love the night shift and, to a lot of people's surprise, it works at really well with having kiddos. I am home to pack them off to school in the morning. I'm home to help with homework, get dinner, etc. in the afternoon/early evening. If I were working 12 hr days - I'd be gone long before they woke up, they'd come home to an empty house, and I'd only get home in the evening in time to tuck them into bed.