Night shifters - are you noctural all the time?

ShayRN · Feb 3, 2010

I have been on evenings (not nights) for 12 years and my sleeping pattern reflexs that. I sleep until 11:30 most days and am up until 3am when I am working and off. I don't stress about it. Everybody knows I am sleeping and get very few phone calls until early afternoon.

NurseNinaFla · Feb 3, 2010

I try to get up early the day I am to work that night (say 8am,

Then try to sleep about 3-4hrs that evening before work and usually its enough to get me through the night

caliotter3 · Feb 3, 2010

I got into the habit of sleeping for three or four hours in the morning when I first got home, then being up for a good portion of the day, then sleeping again for three or four hours before work. Just the way it turned out after I wasn't going to school during the day anymore.

kathy313 · Feb 3, 2010

It was hard for me to adjust, I put a fan on low to help with the noise (cars, neighbors, kids), I also used those room darkening shades too. I also didn't go right to bed when I got home, I'd do some housework or something. I would switch between 12 hour and 8 hour shifts, it sucked.

I had an awful schedule for awhile.....12's or 8's nightshift during the week, then my weekends on, I would do 12 hour days. I was a mess!

jnrsmommy · Feb 3, 2010

I've been working night shift for the last 10 years, first couple on 12hrs, rest 8hr. On my days off, where I worked the night before, I will either stay up all day and pass out about 8-9pm, or I take a 2-3hr nap when I get home, then go to bed when my husband does, usually between 11 and 12. On the day that I go back to work, I take a nap in the early afternoon (12-3 roughly), so that I'm up when my kids get home from school. I don't like waking up right before work, it makes me too groggy.

Tait, MSN, RN · Feb 3, 2010

With that schedule I don't know what to tell you other than watch out for depression. That on/off stuff drives me bonkers and makes me very glad we self-schedule for the most part.

I am not sure what other obligations you have so I can't forthright tell you how to manage that schedule.

Best of luck,

Tait

SmilingBluEyes · Feb 3, 2010

From 10 years of experience being on nights: I have to say it sure as heck helps to be nocturnal and keep on that schedule if you can do it! Unfortunately, it goes 100% against my personal nature of early to bed, early to rise. I am glad to be on dayshift, for sure. But when I was on nights, I kept a night schedule whenever I could to stay healthy and sane.

jjensen · Feb 3, 2010

I work 12 hour nights and the night before I work, I sleep from about 10-4; get up to cook and be with my family before work... Then I go to work all night. When I get home, I sleep from about 9-3 if I don't have to work that night; otherwise I try to sleep until 4-5... I can still sleep all day and go to bed with my husband at night. But, I am lucky and have no trouble falling asleep no matter time of the day...

Good luck to you and the crazy schedule...

rn/writer, RN · Feb 3, 2010

DH and I both work noc shift, which is a tremendous help. On our days off, we sleep from 0400 until 1200, so we're only altering our schedule half a shift. This has worked for both of us for years.

I like the TV on in the background and he snores loud enough to rattle windows. Neither of us likes the other's noise, so we start and end our sleep time cuddling and in between he retires to his own room so we can both get decent sleep.

For a while, it looked like studies were saying that working noc shift was damaging to people's health. Then they revised their theories. Working noc shift unwillingly was a problem, but just working nights didn't seem to have the same bad effect. The worst damage appears to come from changing shifts frequently. Your body just can't develop any kind of rhythm and your health suffers.

I wish all my fellow night owls the best.

pinkiepie_RN · Feb 3, 2010

With that schedule I don't know what to tell you other than watch out for depression. That on/off stuff drives me bonkers and makes me very glad we self-schedule for the most part.
I am not sure what other obligations you have so I can't forthright tell you how to manage that schedule.
Best of luck,
Tait

I'm currently winning a battle with bipolar disorder and I think the sleep schedule is making me depressed, which is why I'm trying to make it as regular as possible. We self schedule, but my manager plays with that schedule so much that I'm lucky to get half of the days that I sign up for.

fiveofpeep · Feb 3, 2010

this is purely second hand knowledge, but Ive heard that disrupted sleeping schedules and sleep deficits can cause rapid cycling and exacerbation of bipolar disorder